Coffee Comes True in Houston at the Little Dreamer CafeDaily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

Inside the Little Dreamer Coffee cafe in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. All images courtesy of Little Dreamer Coffee.

Opening a brick-and-mortar coffee shop may seem like a pie-in-the-sky idea for some people, but for the big dreamers behind Little Dreamer Coffee in Houston, it has translated into pies on plates.

Opened on Pi Day (March 14), the 1,800-square-foot shop in the Montrose neighborhood occupies an 1,800-square-foot space formerly occupied by another Houston roaster, Greenway Coffee.

“We didn’t do anything structural; we added some shelves and stuff,” Little Dreamer Co-Founder and licensed Q Grader Matt Toomey told Daily Coffee News. “[Greenway] did some cool little changes to the bar that we’re benefiting from. We just added our own little smattering of flavor onto it.”

The shop’s wooden bar now features a pastel blue La Marzocco GB5 espresso machine with red logos, while a vivid floral mural with complementing colors greets guests at the entrance. 

Outside of coffee, Toomey is a teacher and a student at Houston’s Loveland Yoga, whose co-founder Annavy Phelan and instructor Laura Bennett were the artists behind Little Dreamer’s mural. Art League Houston, an arts nonprofit, owns the building.

For its robust pie program, Little Dreamer relies on the talents of Houston-based baker Jane Wild, who for the Pi Day (Mar. 14) grand opening provided a wide selection of pies such as blueberry rhubarb, salted honey, and a “red eye” espresso chocolate pie.

“We sold like 480 slices of pie, which is pretty impressive. I thought it was going to last all weekend, but we had to call in more pie,” said Toomey. “There’s not a lot of specialty shops where you can go and get a really good coffee experience with pie, much less really gangster, cultishly, feverishly delicious pies from Jane.”

Founded in 2021 by Toomey and his partner, Anna-Marie Toomey, the roasting company initially opened a retail kiosk inside a seafoam-green converted shipping container at Stomping Grounds in Garden Oaks. 

Although that location has since shut down, Little Dreamer has expanded its roasting operations, relocating from a small roastery in Galveston to a new 800-square-foot facility in East Houston. Inside, a 10-kilo Mill City Roasters machine helps brown the beans. 

“The new space is much bigger and in a cooler part of town, in an old brick building that I really like,” said Toomey. “It’s an old-school coffee area of town. Maxwell House and Folgers and stuff used to be over in that general vicinity.”

Roasting for wholesale customers will gradually grow, while the new location also demands an uptick in production. In the meantime, Toomey said the shop plans to incrementally ramp up production in the onsite kitchen. 

“We’re not too ambitious,” the Little Dreamer leader said. “We’re focused on our own domain of quality. Opportunities present themselves, and I always like to look at them. Until then, we’re just going to try and steer this ship as best as we can.”

Little Dreamer is located at 1953 Montrose Blvd in Houston. 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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