Coming to the TCU area: Coffee and biscuits (in one place), and late-night cookies
Dwell Coffee & Biscuits, which opened in Old Town Burleson in 2014, is adding a Fort Worth location, according to its website and Facebook page.
The location will be near the intersection of University Drive and Berry Street, co-owners Jeff & Stephanie Brannon say in a release sent early Friday afternoon, less than a day after the Facebook post.
"Dwell will be renovating the old Sovereign Bank space in the six-story Woodcrest Capital building," the release says. The building is next to the 7-Eleven at University and Berry, across from the TCU Bookstore.
Even though biscuits have been a comfort-food staple for ages, they've become sort of trendy, with people talking about the biscuits at the recently opened Fort Worth location of Fixe Southern House, with Stacks Biscuit House apparently close to opening in Roanoke and with Fixture chef Ben Merritt planning to open Ben’s Triple B: Biscuits, Burgers and Brews this year near Texas Wesleyan University.
Dwell has been ahead of the trend: Although it started with a coffee-and-sandwich menu, it went the biscuit route close to a year ago. The biscuits side of the menu includes breakfast items such as the "Hot Mess," described on the Burleson menu as a "buttermilk biscuit smothered in gravy topped with scrambled eggs, Earl Campbell hot link, pile of cheddar cheese & jalapenos," and the "Hella Nutella," a buttermilk biscuit that not only features the hazelnut-cocoa spread but strawberries and whipped cream.
The menu lists four specialty biscuits (cheddar bacon, honey butter, strawberry and Nutella) as well more biscuit concoctions that range from $2 for a simple buttered buttermilk biscuit (say that three times fast) to $9 for the Hot Mess.
Coffee drinks include the lattes, mochas and caramel macchiatos you might expect, with the most offbeat — and top-selling — being the Snickers Latte. "Bulletproof" coffee is also available, as are some loose-leaf teas and hot chocolate.
Back in 2014, Star-Telegram contributor Celestina Blok included Dwell in a restaurant-news item for Indulge Magazine.
"Husband-and-wife duo Jeff and Stephanie Brannon, both grads of Burleson High, wanted a cozy environment for a good cup of joe, where guests could feel relaxed and not rushed," Blok wrote. “ 'It’s basically like a second living room over here,' says Jeff, adding that Dwell’s coffee is organic, fair-trade and small batch-roasted."
During a lunchtime drive around the area, we spotted a sign for another incoming spot: Insomnia Cookies, which will be at 2828 W. Berry St., in the same building that houses Cafe Brazil. As the name hints, Insomnia does late-night business, both retail and delivery (a location on Denton's Fry Street is open till 3 a.m. nightly and also delivers that late, with a $6 minimum on delivery).
In addition to Fort Worth and Denton, Insomnia has locations in four other Texas cities — and the locations are, not coincidentally, all near universities. But then, this is a company started, according to its website, in a dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania by student Seth Berkowitz back in 2003. Why didn't we think of this when we had our collegiate munchies?
Insomnia serves several traditional varieties of cookies, as well as three "Deluxe" (triple chocolate chunk, s'mores and peanut-butter cup). It also sells cookie/ice-cream sandwiches and brownies and cookies a la mode, and ice cream all by itself or with mix-ins.
The sign on the Berry Street window says that Insomnia will open this spring.
This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Coming to the TCU area: Coffee and biscuits (in one place), and late-night cookies."