Photography by Kathy Tran.
Accountants Tom and Kristen Boyd bonded over coffee breaks.
Though not long-distance trips, the 15-minute recharge sessions were enough to generate the feeling of “getting away” from the monotony of their day jobs.
“Going in and seeing the barista, and they learn your name, and they learn your order,” Kristen Boyd says. “And you get these smells and the sounds of the coffee shop. And it was just a very comforting feeling and just something that we really enjoyed, looked forward to in our day.”
The Boyds, who are married, knew that they didn’t want accounting to be their long-term career plan and that they wanted to own a business.
They shared a love of drinking coffee and a background in the business world. But they needed to know how to operate a coffee shop, so they took a class at Arlington-based Texas Coffee School.
Learning the technicalities of craft coffee, including regulation of temperature, pressure and grind, was appealing to the numbers-oriented couple.
Finding the location for their business was the most time-consuming step in the process, but Kristen Boyd says they fell in love with the space on Lower Greenville as soon as they saw it.
“I can’t say enough good things about this neighborhood. It is the reason we’re still here, 100% the reason we’re still here through COVID,” she says.
The long, narrow interior, formerly home to a clothing store, lent itself to a plane-inspired theme for the coffee shop, which the Boyds ideated during their time as accountants. Travel magazines are displayed on shelves, along with whole-bean coffee and branded merchandise, including mugs and T-shirts. Ten paintings by five artists, most of them based in Fort Worth, depict landscapes that could be seen from the window seat of an airplane.
By March 2020, the Boyds had the technical skills, a theme, a storefront and a trained staff, complete with bakers and baristas. Window Seat Coffee was ready to open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
“We were open for a day,” Kristen Boyd says. “I think we had seven customers all day, and four of them were our friends and family.”
After that, Window Seat was completely closed for a couple of weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the Boyds started running the shop again by themselves, offering a few baked goods and coffees to-go.
Around June, Window Seat brought a few employees back and was open for in-person service at 50% capacity.
Eventually, the shop stopped baking its own pastries, instead opting to sell Tacodeli tacos and Richardson-based La Casita Bakeshop items.
The kitchen in the back was replaced by a roasting area.
Tom spearheaded the roasting component of the business. Around the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021, they purchased a small roasting machine to get the hang of the process. About six months later, they bought a 12-kilogram roaster, which barely fit through the back door after a panel on the machine was removed.
Though warming up the roaster takes some time, beans roast for less than 15 minutes. The Boyds monitor the beans using a computer software, which helps ensure consistency in bringing out the flavor profile of the beans.
“It’s fun to just have another step in the process as well,” Tom Boyd says. “We can buy the beans that we want and try to roast them in the way that we want to have them roasted, and it really just makes things a little bit more of our own, too.”
Roasted beans, sourced from places such as Costa Rica, Brazil, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Colombia, are used to make drinks at Window Seat, and they’re packaged and sold online and at the shop.
Other coffee shops grow by adding stores. But the Boyds say they would rather develop the manufacturing side of the business, with sales of their roasted beans and maybe even bottled cold brew.
“I think that’s kind of a good fit for both of us,” Tom says. “We get to really take pride in the things that we’re able to offer. It kind of can be our products that we feel really good about, and we get to be here, present and talking to people in the community.”
The most popular drink — regardless of the weather — is the tres leches iced coffee, which costs about $5 with tax. A three-milk creamer with vanilla and cinnamon is added to cold brew, all made and brewed in house.
Lattes are also popular and can be flavored with seasonal syrups, which are also made at Window Seat.
“I think when people come to the store, that’s what I want them to feel more than anything is, they’re welcome,” Kristen Boyd says. “Even if it’s just for 10 minutes, it’s just a really nice, joyful experience during their day.”
Window Seat Coffee, 3018 Greenville Ave.
