Ascension Coffee recently opened a new location at White Rock Lake in what used to be a church.
The White Rock Community Church was built sometime in the 1950s but has not been in use for around a decade.
The neighborhood community fought to keep the church from being torn down when the city announced plans to raze it and voiced its desire to turn it into a retail space. Ascension Coffee heard the community’s desire and turned the church into a coffee shop that opened just last month.
The neighborhood also features other new businesses like Lounge Here, Hypnotic Donuts, and Baldo’s Ice Cream.
Ascension Coffee opened its first location in 2012 in the Design District. Since then, the business has opened locations in Frisco, Fort Worth, Crescent Court, Addison, and Cypress Waters.
Ascension Coffee sets itself apart from other coffee shops with its large food menu, which features breakfast sandwiches, pastries, lunch bowls, sandwiches, and salads. Unlike most coffee shops, the business also serves alcohol. Ascension Coffee stocks a variety of wines, and the business also serves Bloody Marys, mimosas, and espresso martinis.
The White Rock location also includes a Golden Hour menu, presumably a menu for after brunch. The menu includes craft cocktails, shareable flatbreads, dips, and bruschetta, as well as 50% off house wine bottles after 3 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.
With every location, Ascension Coffee tries to emphasize “the importance of a stress-free and inviting atmosphere where community can thrive.” The business “strive[s] to make each Ascension café an authentic, warm, and relaxed place that everyone can call their own,” according to the website.
Manager Colin Dusek told WFAA that sometimes people who attended the church come in for a coffee. “We actually do have a couple regulars that come in who got married here,” Dusek said.
The Ascension Coffee in White Rock Lake has stayed true to much of the original architecture, keeping the steeple and the original blueprints.