After Soco Coffee House closed earlier this year, Lakeridge Village was left without a veritable destination for early morning lattes.
But don’t worry, that changes tomorrow morning.
Vector Brewing, which briefly offered brunch when it opened in 2020, is rolling out a new coffee, tea and breakfast menu for a soft launch beginning this week with extended hours.
Photo by Austin Wood.
“SoCo was an awesome part of the shopping center,” said owner Craig Bradley. “They were that coffee need. And then when they left, I mean, the whole reason we opened Vector to begin with was that we saw a need for something in the neighborhood, for a place for people to go and have some good drinks and some beer and pizza and bring your family and stuff like that. And so once again, we were just like ‘there’s no coffee in the center.’ So there’s a need there.”
Bradley, his wife and business partner Veronica Johnson, and their team have spent the last few months hiring new staff and gathering the necessary equipment needed for their new offerings. They’ve gotten a drip coffee machine, an espresso maker and have connected with local vendors to get their new menu ready for opening.
“That’s what small businesses do,” Johnson said. “We stick together and help each other out. And so yeah, when we finally found the equipment we wanted, it just started falling into place.”
Their coffee is supplied by Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters, a local micro-roaster and coffee lab based in Exposition Park. The coffee offering is extensive, with doppios, espressos, cappuccinos, americanos, red-eyes and cortados all available. The menu also includes iced beverages, bottomless house drip coffee — if you’re sipping on the premises, and a well-rounded selection of matcha, chai and loose leaf teas.
The new breakfast menu features an assortment of locally baked pastries from area vendors. Authentic, Czech-style kolaches and Texan pigs-in-blankets will come from Lake Highlands-area home baker Hummingbird Sweets, and cinnamon rolls will be provided by Salt Sweets.
James Beard finalist La Casita Bakeshop, which already supplies Vector and has announced plans to move into the old Black Forest space in Half Price Books, will also bring its award winning croissants into the mix.
Heavier options like chilaquiles and a scratch-made chicken biscuit will compliment the pastry offerings. The menu also includes avocado toast made on La Casita sourdough toast and a focaccia sandwich.
“A folded egg sandwich on focaccia from La Casita,” Johnson said. “That’s amazing. And then avocado toast and it’s not your typical avocado toast, it’s really fancy. It’s like whipped avocado, it’s got chia seeds on it, and it’s really good.”
The breakfast menu is only eight items-long, so it’s succinct to say the least. As Vector has already had to cut brunch from its offering before, Johnson and Bradley are keeping it intentionally brief, although they said they are open to additions in the future.
Breakfast items will be available until 11 a.m.
The new menu will soft launch this week without online ordering, with a full launch expected on next Tuesday, Aug. 13, coinciding with the start of school for Richardson ISD students.
As part of the new offerings, Vector is also expanding hours. It will now open at 7 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Johnson said that going forward that she hopes to turn the taproom into a calm third space for neighbors to work and study in the early morning.
“The goal of the indoors is that this will be a quiet, chill workspace,” Johnson said. “That’s the plan. And then folks with kiddos hopefully they can hang out and drink the coffee outside and their kiddos can run around outside.”
