As coffee enthusiasts, Brian and Gina Milligan have made it a tradition to try out new coffee shops during their travels.
When Brian began thinking of a career change in 2012, it was only natural that he and his wife would consider opening their own coffee shop.
The family-owned and -operated Coffee Folk officially opened in the Meadowbrook neighborhood in 2017. In a renovated trailer located on a green lot, the Milligans combine roasted coffee beans they source from Oregon with their homemade syrups to provide coffee to the southeast community of Fort Worth. Coffee Folk also sells pastries and breakfast tacos.
Contact information:
Location: 4147 Meadowbrook Drive, Fort Worth
Phone: 817-313-3219
Facebook: Coffee Folk
Instagram: @coffeefolkcafe
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Nicole Lopez: How did Coffee Folk get started?
Brian Milligan: I wanted to find a new career in 2012, around that time frame. Gina’s always enjoyed coffee, and that’s what we enjoyed doing in our spare time. We’d go to coffee shops, try out new places anytime we went to a new town. We always enjoyed the coffee shop environment. It was always something that was a capital interest.
And then my grandparents had a trailer they were trying to get rid of, so that also sparked the idea.
We didn’t want to have a permanent storefront at that point, but we thought maybe we could have something mobile, that we could try different locations.
Lopez: How did you decide on being based in Meadowbrook?
Milligan: We remembered this location having a nice green space. What we always wanted was to have a shop in our own neighborhood. That’s how we got here.
So I approached Keith Thomson, who runs the Firehouse Pottery & Gallery. His mother-in-law owns the property. They were really open to it and welcome to having us.
So we did one event on a Small Business Saturday where we were parked in the lots here to get the feel of the neighborhood and see if people were interested in something like that. Well, a lot of people came out to that.
Lopez: Tell me a little more about your grandparents’ trailer.
Milligan: It was an old trailer. It was pretty much rebuilt from the ground up, because it had been sitting in their backyard for 30 years, so not a lot was salvageable. But we still didn’t want to change it, we kept as much as we could. We made it to where it would bring more natural light. We wanted to mimic the cafe environment, of being present a little more visually and connecting with people a little better.
Lopez: What about your coffee stands out? Do you have any specialty drinks or food?
Milligan: We use great ingredients. Gina makes all the syrups. They’re all unique in that way. Certainly you can find that in other shops as well, but every recipe will be different.
We have a burnt sugar and pink salt latte. It’s similar to a caramel-based drink but it’s made with less sugar and we don’t add cream, so it’s a little lighter and combines well with the milk and the coffee.
Our most popular drink is the vanilla bean latte, which is made from whole bean vanilla.
We also use local dairy products, which makes for quality milk. We just try to always use good ingredients.
Lopez: Do you offer vegan or vegetarian options?
Milligan: We have gluten-free and vegan options. As far as our drinks, most of them can be made with vegan ingredients.
Lopez: Do you all participate in community events such as farmers markets?
Milligan: We get requests from the schools nearby, also to participate in teacher appreciation events. When leadership with the Friends of Tandy Hills organize trash cleanup days, we provide coffee. It’s something we hope to do more of in the future.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
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