At the new Common Good coffee shop, listening room and salon in Old East Dallas. All images courtesy of Common Good.
Grooves, brews and soothing shampoos are swirling under a shared roof in Dallas with the opening of the Common Good cafe, listening room and salon.
The Old East Dallas shop is filled with custom woodwork, including for the shop’s 13-foot bar, shelving and bench seating in the cafe, while sheetrock on one end and exposed brick on the other are tied together by cooling polished concrete floors.
Entering Common Good, customers first glide past an all-white Mahlkönig grinder, Puqpress auto-tamper and La Marzocco GB5 espresso machine setup before reaching the DJ station, where turntables embedded in the wooden bar are illuminated by studious green bankers’ lamps. A vintage hi-fi system and vinyl records occupy much of the custom shelving behind the bar.
Towards the back, a glass wall separates the cafe from a full-service salon, where the lights are brighter. A green couch in the salon matches the green upholstery on chairs next to marble-topped tables in the cafe. Stylists at the shop work independently, booking their own clients.
“We really don’t need walk-ins, because [the stylists] already have their clientele. The main focus, what I really push, is the coffee area,” Common Good Founder Chris Bermudez told Daily Coffee News. “It’s more creative, and it’s also a listening room. We have 1970s sound equipment, sometimes we have DJs come in and spin all vinyl — nothing crazy. It’s not a coffee rave — just chill, good music and good coffee.”
Bermudez, who is originally from Mexico City, said the concept for Common Good was inspired by multifaceted businesses in both Mexico and in South Korea.
“In Mexico City, where I’m from, I always go to these places that have coffee shop listening rooms,” said Bermudez. “They have like two or three businesses in one. That just makes sense to me. South Korea has a lot of these places too. I’m taking pieces from everywhere around the world and just trying to piece it together and have something creative here in Dallas that we don’t have.”
With 17 years’ experience as a hairdresser and zero as a barista, Bermudez brought in Jesse Nava to lead the Common Good coffee program.
A longtime Lone Star specialty coffee professional and currently the head bartender at Al Biernat’s steakhouse by night, Nava works with coffees roasted by Dallas-based Lemma Coffee Roasters to create a straightforward menu of classic espresso and drip options, plus a succinct selection of specialty drinks.
The Cardamom Rose latte, Mexican Mocha and Pistachio Matcha all use locally made natural syrups and fresh ingredients.
“We’re not going to have like 50 ‘okay’ drinks. We try to keep our menu small so we can get it done correctly,” said Bermudez, who anticipates opening additional Common Good locations. “We could probably do a barbershop and a coffee shop with it, or get more creative and do a Pilates and coffee shop, or another salon like this. But I really want to do more than one, that’s for sure.”
Common Good is located at 1619 N. Hall St. in Dallas. 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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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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