Big Mike’s Coffeehouse to open in Denton

by Melissa Boughton of North Texas Daily

Fry Street's Voyager's Dream may have closed down shop, but owner Mike Sutton has something else to offer students and residents: coffee.

Big Mike's Coffee has been in the works since January, with construction beginning in February in the same building. Sutton is pushing for an opening at the end of this month.

Voyager's Dream, a novelty store, closed at the end of last year after serving customers everything from musical instruments to peace-inspired clothing for 17 years. Sutton initially wanted to rent the building or have someone else open a coffee shop, but it didn't work out that way, he said.

Fry Street has been best known lately for the destruction of the pizza joint The Tomato, and several other businesses have also closed. Most of the properties were bought out and evicted by United Equities Inc., a real estate developing company based in Houston.

"What we don't have any more of is coffee," Sutton said. "The goal is to bring the community back to Fry Street."

Big Mike's will be open around the clock and will offer free Wi-Fi for customers.

"I think a coffee shop should be 24 hours," Sutton said. "The kids are up, there's just no place for them to go."

In addition to selling coffee, Big Mike's will also sell art. Latte Gallery will feature work from local artists in monthly rotating exhibits.

"Latte stands for 'local artists trying to exhibit,'" gallery coordinator and night manager Paul O'Neil said. "We have a lot of wall space to offer."

Featured art will be all types of mediums, including canvas, sculpture, photography and stained glass. Local artists are encouraged to submit their work for review. The gallery will also host a meet-and-greet with artists and patrons at the beginning of every monthly art rotation.

"The overall goal is to create beauty in this space and offer a place for local artists to show their work," O'Neil said.

The coffeehouse will also serve as a music venue for small bands and single artists.

Whether the building's colorful paint job of oranges and blues depicting a celestial ocean will change is still in limbo, Sutton said.

Students who miss Voyager's Dream and all that the store had to offer will be able to find some of the signature products such as the tapestries and jewelry for sale at Big Mike's Coffeehouse.

"Everyone here is going to be really into it and excited about it," UNT international studies junior and employee Sadie Ryckoff said of the coffeehouse. "It will be very community involved."