Restaurant renegade Brooke Humphries will open Mudsmith coffee on January 28

Humphries adds coffee shop to her bar, club, and eatery coalition.

Joy Zhang

Brooke Humphries: Dallas restaurant extraordinaire.

GREENVILLE AVENUE — While the booming craft beer industry has gotten serious attention already this year, 2013 is also set to be the year of the coffeehouse. Brooke Humphries -- mastermind behind Acme F&B, Barcadia (with two locations), and It'll Do Club -- will unveil her newest masterpiece, Mudsmith, a coffee-shop-wine-bar hybrid on Greenville Avenue, across from the future site of Trader Joe's.

Coffee-wise, Mudsmith's packing an arsenal of hardcore equipment from "Chemex and V-60 equipment for slow pour over methods" to "two custom made Stradas by La Marzocco for specialty espresso drinks," and they will brew Four Barrel Coffee from San Francisco.

Joy Zhang

Mudsmith is a little bit country, a little bit rock-n-roll.

In addition, Mudsmith will have eight craft beers on tap and four wines rotated frequently, as well as "fresh pastries baked in-house and a selection of sandwiches such as the jalapeno meatloaf with redneck cheddar and guava BBQ sauce."

They had us at "redneck cheddar."

Actually, they had us at the spot's eye-catching, rustic design, which is a combination of metal and steelwork by Rusty Buffalo's Steve Mabry and interior decor by Chaney 44's Ryan Chaney. This look adds to Humphries' vision of bringing to Dallas a spot with underground character, like one might find in New York, Portland, or San Francisco.

Joy Zhang

Let's put it this way: When it comes to espresso, these are what you call "bringing out the big guns."

"I believe Dallas is [becoming] more authentic. The plastic is still there in spots, of course, but there is definitely an expanding crowd that is drawn to the unique and special projects that people are doing around town," Humphries said.

For Humphries, and so many more local entrepreneurs pushing Dallas to its highest cultural potential, finding an eager and interested clientele is hardly a challenge.

"I've lived here a long time, and Dallas has grown from being a '5 block radius only town' to a fairly hip and knowledgeable group that travels to where they get what they need and want. That leaves the door wide open to operators like myself who are willing to take chances," she said.