Marta and Kevin Sprague started Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters in 2011 at a farmer’s market. Not a pop-up at a trendy venue with a trailer and an Instagram account — a farmers market, the Good Local Markets, selling directly to people who showed up on a Saturday morning looking for produce and found a couple roasting coffee instead. It took years before they opened the coffee lab at 819 Exposition Avenue in Expo Park, just east of Fair Park, in a neighborhood that most Dallas coffee drinkers don’t think to drive to.
That’s been true since day one and it remains the reason the people who have found Noble Coyote tend to feel like they found something.
Kevin is the head roaster and he came to it the way musicians come to their instruments — through obsession and patience rather than formal training. He is a self-taught musician and he describes roasting in those terms: there is a rhythm to it, a timing, a feel that shapes what ends up in the cup. Noble Coyote roasts everything on-site, in small batches, sourced directly from individual farmers through direct trade relationships that prioritize sustainable growing practices and ethical compensation.
The beans arrive as green coffee and leave as something specific — the roast profile Kevin develops for each origin is not a template but a decision, made based on what that particular coffee needs to become.
The espresso is the foundation and it shows. People return with the same word repeatedly: consistency. A double shot at Noble Coyote has deep chocolate notes that run steady from the first sip through the finish, the result of a dark roast profile executed with enough precision that it never tips into the bitterness that characterizes most dark roasts. The iced dark chocolate mocha is the drink that most people order first and keep ordering — built on that espresso, not on flavored syrup, the chocolate flavor coming from the bean rather than from a pump bottle.
The cappuccino and the espresso tonic round out the menu alongside a rotating selection of single-origin pour-overs that change with what Kevin is currently roasting. Coffee beans are available for purchase and ship nationally from the Noble Coyote website.
The room is small. Earth-tone decor, cozy and quiet, with enough space to work if you want to and a parking lot next door if you need it. Dogs welcome on the patio. The staff knows enough about what they’re serving to give you a real recommendation rather than a recitation of the menu. It is, in the most precise sense, a neighborhood coffee shop — the kind built by two people who started at a farmers market because they believed in what they were making and needed somewhere to sell it.
Open Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. (214) 321-4321.
