Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters

Shannon Neffendorf started Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters in 2008 after a business trip to Milan left him unable to settle for what passed as coffee back in Dallas; he began roasting on the side, landed Crooked Tree Coffeehouse as his first wholesale account in January 2009, and quit his job at Blockbuster soon after to roast full time. The company still runs on the freshness discipline that grew out of that decision: coffee is roasted in small batches, sealed into one-way-valve bags as soon as it cools, and each bag is stamped with its actual roast date rather than a generic best-by. In 2016, Oak Cliff became the first Dallas-based roaster to win a Good Food Award, a national recognition for craft food producers, cementing a reputation that has since carried the business into wholesale accounts across Dallas-Fort Worth, including early clients like The Wild Detectives and Whole Foods. On West Davis Street, the roastery now anchors CliffMade, a small collective of Oak Cliff food producers that groups Oak Cliff Coffee alongside 5 Mile Chocolate, Candor Bread, East Kiest Farms, Davis Street Espresso and Race Street Coffee — neighborhood makers sharing a retail footprint rather than a single roastery-café model.