For some fitness enthusiasts, life is all about that grind. Wake up. Work out. And nothing fuels that workout better than the sweet juice from another kind of grinds: the coffee kind.
That's part of the reason Chad Plumlee, owner of Cadence Cyclery, opened Wattage Coffee Company. The coffee shop opened Memorial Day weekend inside the original bike shop in McKinney. Its twin location, Velo Cafe, opened Friday inside the newest Cadence Cyclery in Keller.
“Bicycles and coffee kind of go together,” Plumlee says. “We do a lot of group road rides from [the shops], so it makes a nice starting point. People come in and have coffee and it adds a community aspect.”
Customers are guided through the store by faux street signs with labels such as Nutrition Ave., Java Alley and Check Out Blvd.
Java Alley, as you might have guessed, is the portion of the store that's home to the Wattage Coffee Company. It has all the features of a typical coffee shop, with plenty of seating, outlets and Instagram-feed-friendly white accents. But unlike most coffee shops, the smell of brewing coffee competes with the scent of rubber tires, and decorations include bikes mounted on the walls, framed biking jerseys and a wall of merch and protein snacks.
While the shop caters to athletes with drinks like Roubaix Recovery (vanilla recovery mix, almond milk and espresso over ice), it’s not only for cyclists. Caffeinated drinks like cortados and cubans are for sale, as well as seasonal specials like the Iced En Fuego (espresso shot on ice with half and half, phosphate, vanilla flavoring and a spritz of orange spray).
Shop employees make the syrups in-house and use beans from Avoca, a roastery in Fort Worth.
Though Plumlee's shops have sold coffee for five years, there wasn't an official coffee menu or seating area until recently. “We honed the skill," Plumlee says, "and then felt like we were doing it really well, so we wanted to add retail."
Plumlee opened the original McKinney bike shop in 2011, retiring from a 10-year career in the pharmaceutical industry to pursue a cycling passion. Since then, it transitioned from a part-time to a full-time business with multiple locations. Now, Plumlee is even considering standalone coffee shops due to the positive feedback.
Velo Cafe is located at 159 S. Main St., Keller. Wattage Coffee Company is located at 129 S. Tennessee St., McKinney. Both are located alongside a Cadence Cyclery.
