TREC Cafe

Super cute! If you’re shlepping it because you accidentally showed up an hour before your court assignment– come here! Show your juror badge & get 10% off!
I’m so glad the last review explained that it was in the glass elevator because the address pin is poorly placed.
Either way, simple selection of coffee drinks & smoothies, decent selection of hot sandwiches and a cooler of things like parfaits & a cooler of drinks like monsters, juices etc.) Pretty perfect if you’re biding time downtown (like that time my nephew’s bio mom drug out a custody hearing because she didn’t have a job and was living off child support and was demanding that she still receive 100% child support when my brother gained 100% custody (and 100% financial responsibility)… Yup, this is the place to come to keep your nephew company while he’s not allowed in the hearing.)
It’s a great little coffee place (clean too!!!)

While it’s kind of cut off from the rest of downtown by arterial streets rushing this way and that, I think this is a hidden little gem. It’s very simply a coffee shop, tiny and nestled into the architecture of the brand new TCC Trinity River Campus, and if you’re just driving by looking at it from street level it’s very unassuming. It kind of just looks like a modified elevator shaft if you don’t take too close a look.
But wait, there’s more! In about 400 square feet, they managed to fit this little coffee shop, and it’s kind of a surreal experience because it never seems like anyone is there. Just the lonely barista, an aspiring zen master of sorts, isolated on a lonely urban desert isle with only their coffee, hissing espresso machines and syrups, honing their craft in silence and waiting for someone to drop in so that s/​he may impart wisdom onto them in the form of the caffeine of their choosing.
There’s also a small patio area that overhangs and looks over into the cavernous space that has been excavated for the buildings, with a waterfall and urban rushing river that runs the length of the campus. It’s honestly pretty cool and it doesn’t seem to be extremely well-​known, or at least well-​frequented. If you’re feeling adventurous and can make the brave quest past the asphalt moats and roaring automobile dragons that keep you chained to the core downtown area, I’d recommend trying it.