Pony Coffee Gallops Into Tulsa with First Cafe

Inside the new Pony Coffee shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All images courtesy of Pony Coffee.

A new coffee roasting company called Pony Coffee is showing itself in Tulsa, with its first cafe in a landmark building in Riverview.

The coffee shop that opened in October last year spurs new life into the 100-year-old former home of G. Oscar Bicycles, a locally beloved bike shop owned by photographer G. Oscar Herron. Gutted to the studs and equipped with new plumbing, electrical systems and a new roof, the house maintains the creaky original wood floors that have withstood the foot traffic of generations of Tulsans.

Shiplap planks line the newly vaulted ceiling upstairs, while fresh white tiles brighten the wall behind the ground floor bar. Nodding to the building’s past, Pony Coffee Co-Owner Micky Payne curated a selection of reframed Herron photos, bike stuff and other knick-knacks left over from the change in ownership.

“It’s a great place to play ‘I Spy,'” Pony Coffee Co-Owner and Roaster Josh Gifford told Daily Coffee News. “[Herron] was an eclectic hoarder, in the sense that he had some really cool stuff. Yes, he did have probably 10,000 bike wheels, but he also had some really cool and unique things and things that he made.”

A brand new Synesso S200 espresso machine is paired with Mahlkönig grind-by-weight grinders provide plenty of horsepower for the coffee bar, where Pony Coffee’s Giddy Up espresso blend features prominently.

Clay Welch, a Tulsa-based musician whose decades of specialty coffee day jobs most recently included more than 10 years at Shades of Brown Coffee & Art, is the Pony Coffee partner leading the bar and coffee program.

Gifford, meanwhile, leans into training received from his old friend Rob Stewart, owner of Tulsa-based Chimera Coffee, in order to roast coffees from Costa Rica, Tanzania and Ethiopia on Chimera’s 12-kilo U.S. Roaster Corp machine. Each of the coffees are offered as single origins when not herded into the immediately popular flagship blend.

“It’s been crushing. It’s really approachable as an espresso, it’s not super acidic,” said Gifford. “When you hit it with a little bit of milk like in a cortado, that last sip of it is very much like you just had a piece of caramel candy.”

Customers can enjoy their drinks on the wraparound porch or the large covered patio outside, or inside either at tables, soft couches and swiveling lounge chairs that all reinforce the vintage homey vibes.

“The decor inside is really set up like a house — a lot of couches and comfy chairs like your crunchy old grandma’s house or something,” said Gifford, who also owns a bar and music venue in Tulsa called Soundpony. “A lot of people compare it to the feel that you get in an Oregon or Colorado mountain town.”

The Chimera Coffee machine.

The familiar Pegasus that appears in Soundpony branding reappears in the Pony Coffee logo, where the wing takes the form of a steaming cup of coffee. The design adorns the cafe signage as well as refillable whole-bean coffee cans.

The company recently secured a warehouse space on Charles Page Blvd. in Tulsa for the development of its own roasting facilities later this year.

“We’re headed towards having our own roastery,” said Gifford. “That space has the potential to have a nice big patio as well. Once we get that rolling, we’re hoping that will also be a site that people can come and hang out and drink coffee.”

Pony Coffee is located at 1623 South Main Street in Tulsa. Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter. 

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