“We somehow replaced the homey third place with a stark white museum. I think we get it by now — coffee is cool. But the aesthetic is getting too serious.

It’s not that serious. Just make the drink.”

Starting fresh.

After years spent ensuring the success of others—as a repeat manager of some of Texas’s most successful coffee institutions—Chase had a lot under his belt. But the industry was starting to lose its luster. As the fourth wave of coffee began losing the plot, Chase could feel himself growing tired of it. Tina could feel it too.

So together, they took a leap of faith.

Presented with the opportunity to build a shop in their own image, the Records had a lot on their minds. Culture was losing touch with what it meant to actually be together.

Chase and Tina’s boys were getting older. Fleeting things kept cycling in and out of relevance. And the increasingly expensive experience of ordering craft coffee was making it harder and harder to remain an uncynical purveyor of the brown bean.

What’s missing?

That question carved out answers fast.

Our faces were buried in phones and laptops. Algorithms were telling us our two-year-old espresso machine was already obsolete. Barista culture couldn’t stop chasing novelty at the expense of the fundamentals.

It was time to break the cycle.

No WiFi. No marketing team. Just build the space, make the rules, and dial in the drinks that bring happy people under the same roof.

Product and service would sit far above aesthetic and trend.

And Denton would gain a new hidden gem.