Coffee, Culture and Community Are Co-Stars at Tre Stelle’s First Cafe in Dallas

Inside the new Tre Stelle Coffee shop in Far North Dallas. Courtesy photo.

The stars have aligned for specialty coffee in Far North Dallas as Eritrean family-run roasting company Tre Stelle Coffee has opened its first cafe.

Traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian baskets hang between artwork from by local artists on the cafe’s bright white walls, while the company’s Ambex YM-15 roaster is visible throughout the shop.

“Our shop is designed to have a modern, industrial interior with a natural twist,” Tre Stelle Co-Founder Jonathan Ghebreamlak told DCN. “We have our roaster out in the open of the seating area for everyone to see and get a feel for the authenticity of having their coffee freshly roasted in-house.”

While contemporary coffee shop design often puts production roasting elements front and center to capture the industrial spirit, the fresh-roasted coffee at Tre Stelle also recalls Ghebreamlak’s Eritrean family heritage involving traditional East African coffee ceremonies.

Tre Stelle Coffee Co-Founder Jonathan Ghebreamlak. Photo by VLF Media & Promotions.

“It’s about bringing people together,” Ghebreamlak said. “It’s a way of [saying], ‘Hey, I appreciate you coming to my house, you’re a guest of mine, we respect you and we treat you well here.'”

A pair of Mazzer Super Jolly grinders and a 2-group La Marzocco GB5 espresso machine, all custom painted white, support a classic espresso-based drinks menu alongside international highlights like the Cafe Touba, a Senegalese-inspired spiced coffee with freshly ground grains of selim mixed with ground coffee.

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“In our opinion, serving delicious coffee is only a portion of our cafe,” Ghebreamlak told DCN. “We feel that our overall purpose is bridging the gap between traditional and modern coffee.”

Ghebreamlak and his father Yordan first started discussing the idea of a coffee company about five years ago and then founded Tre Stelle in 2019 following a trip back to Eritrea. It was Jonathan’s first visit to Bar Tre Stelle, his father’s favorite coffee spot in the capital city of Amsara.

Photo by Tuesday Yullrich, courtesy of Tre Stelle Coffee.

“I got a chance to finally see it for the first time, and I fell in love with it, just the experience of it,” said Ghebreamlak. “No matter what time of day you went there it was busy.”

Now, inside a roastery cafe of his own, Jonathan Ghebreamlak focuses on cafe and roasting operations while Yordan concentrates on wholesale relationships and sourcing green coffee through importers such as Cafe Imports, Royal Coffee and Yirgacheffe specialist Highland Berry.

“We are in talks with a few more direct-to-farm importers,” said Jonathan Ghebreamlak. “We have not roasted coffee from Eritrea, but would love to if we find a distributor that we could work with.”

Ghebreamlak said Tre Stelle seeks to expand its wholesale business regionally and eventually nationwide, while continually aiming for the stars with its cafe experience in Dallas.

Bar Tre Stelle in Amsara, Eritrea. Courtesy photo.

“We plan to continue building our name within the Dallas-Fort Worth coffee scene, and seek to become one of the more reputable shops over the upcoming years,” said Ghebreamlak. “We plan on accomplishing this by creating an environment where all patrons feel welcomed and completely satisfied from the time that they walk into our space to the time they leave our space.”

Tre Stelle Coffee is located at 17390 Preston Rd Suite 210 in Dallas. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.