If you’ve visited Common Desk (or have a membership with us), you know this to be true: Common Desk runs on coffee. We take our caffeination very seriously, to the extent that we bought our own coffee shop—and watched it bloom as beautifully as a bed of freshly ground, sustainably sourced coffee beans.
The Story
Fiction Coffee’s origin story begins in the quaint building at the corner of Ross & Hall that once held Method Coffee. Common Desk took over the space in November of 2017, kicking off with a holiday pop-up event that’s become a beloved tradition by Dallasites and visitors alike: Deck the Hall Street. We’ve spent four years living out Fiction’s mission:
to strip down the pretentiousness of coffee and give everyone, no matter their level of coffee understanding or experience, the best quality of product that we can give.
Serving exclusively Counter Culture Coffee, who represents a commitment to specialty and third wave coffee standards, Fiction Coffee at Ross & Hall provides that casual, welcoming, and laid back coffee shop experience that we all dream of. It’s a breath-of-fresh-air, otherworldly space that lets visitors leave the weight of everyday troubles at the door and hide away with an incredible cup of coffee for as long as they want. Hence, our brand’s signature invitation: Escape Reality, Enter Fiction.
The People
Fiction Coffee is built on the same values as Common Desk, but it’s the hearts of the people behind the bar that make it a thing of magic. Fiction pours as much love into its baristas as it does into each cappuccino, cultivating a supportive and encouraging team dedicated to serving incomparable hospitality to everyone who enters.
The Product
Fiction boasts a traditional menu of espresso go-to’s, including all the classics you’d expect from a third wave coffee provider. We also partner with local bakeries and taco joints to make sure customers have a plethora of grab-and-go food offerings like donuts, croissants, and breakfast tacos to match their coffee or tea of choice. Fun fact: Fiction is testing out a more robust food offering for the first time from our new Continental Gin outpost, currently serving bagels, salads, house-made wraps, and sandwiches delivered fresh daily by Commissary. The highlight of Fiction’s product line is its special Fictional menu, which offers unique flavor combinations that change with the seasons, is both imagined and hand-crafted in-house by our baristas; and if you’ve ever noticed a trend with our signature drink names, it’s because they’re each inspired by favorite fictional pieces, such as The Secret Garden (a lavender & chamomile latte) or There Will Be Blood (a blood orange black tea mixed with apple cider and autumn spice syrup).
A Perfect Pairing
As Common Desk grows and opens new coworking and flex office locations, we’re able to take our passion project with Fiction Coffee to a new level. Many of our locations have “hospitality bars” (as we like to call them) that are powered by Fiction, offering its friendly service and lovingly crafted coffee drinks to Common Desk members right where they work. Bonus perk: Common Desk members get a 15% discount at Fiction, both within CD spaces and stand-alone shops.
We have the opportunity to serve great coffee and human connection in two more stand-alone outposts at Vari in Las Colinas and One Victory near Downtown Dallas. In March 2021, we excitedly opened the doors to our second ever full-fledged space on floor 1 of The Continental Gin Building, serving the public, Common Desk members, and CGB office tenants alike.
The Fiction brand has expanded not only to new Common Desks, but also to new cities; earlier this year, we opened our first outpost in Houston inside Four Oaks Place. And, since you can never have too much coffee (in our unbiased opinion), we’re delighted to say that there’s more Fiction on the way. Fiction Coffee is moving just down the street from our original location to Bogart, a new mixed-use building on Ross Avenue in Dallas. After that, new horizons…perhaps a new state? Stay tuned and stay caffeinated, escape artists.
