Alma Sardas, owner of Daydream Bookstore Cafe, turns her love for reading and coffee into a shop. Sardas said she named her bookstore and coffee shop after a book she read called “Daydream.”
The dark aroma of coffee filled Alma Sardas’ mornings as a 12-year-old. As the sun rose and the school bus turned onto her corner, she packed up her coffee with her textbooks. Her Cuban father taught her how to master the art of strong espresso, and ever since then, she has made her own.
As an adult, she begins her mornings the same way. Coffee fills the air, but instead of waiting for a school bus, she stands in a pastel wonderland of white arches, colorful books and a stream of customers.
It’s her creation from scratch: Daydream Bookstore Cafe.
Growing up, Alma Sardas would get in trouble for reading. She was an avid reader and her store has been a passion project since she was a little girl.
“She always said, ‘One day Mom, I’m going to have a little café,’” Claudia Sardas, Alma’s mother, said. “She loved to read.”
Alma Sardas said she got the idea for the name of the store from a book she was reading.
“I was reading the book called ‘Daydream’ when I decided to finally name the store,” she said. “When I read it, it solidified it, especially because at the end of the book, she ends up opening her own bookstore. I felt like I was getting sign after sign that I should do it.”
She digitally rendered the space, and she said she remembers the moment she received the keys to see it come to reality.
“I remember walking in and seeing it, and I was like, ‘This is like what was on my laptop.’ This is insane to see it from that version to real life,” Alma Sardas said.
Burleson, Texas, resident Krysten Garza, 33, left, takes a photo of Deanna Laureles, 30, inside Daydream Bookstore Cafe in Arlington. Laureles said she found out about the shop on TikTok.
Since she was born and raised in Fort Worth, Alma Sardas planned to start her business there, but she ended up choosing a space in downtown Arlington, next to her alma mater, UTA.
“I feel like we’re in a perfect spot,” she said. “I really like it. I love the natural light every day. Makes me happy to put the tables out.”
The bookstore’s sole employee, Arlington resident Kennedy Hopkins, 21, contacted Alma Sardas about working at Daydream earlier in the year.
“Originally I was like, ‘Hey, I was wondering if you were planning on doing any book clubs. I would love to host a LGBT romance book club. But also, by the way, I have barista experience,’” Hopkins said.
Although hired in January, Hopkins began working at Daydream during the store’s soft opening March 14.
But as lovely as the shop turned out, Alma Sardas’ journey to making her dream come true was not easy. A year and a half of obstacles stood in her way.
“It took a long time for things to get approved by the city to be able to start construction and zoning,” she said. “All the food and beverage took forever because there are so many steps to get it to be open and pass health inspections.”
Working with the city and her landlord while waiting for permits was a struggle, but when things were especially hard, Alma Sardas was grateful for the amount of online support she received, she said.
“I am genuinely shocked with the amount of feedback and support and everything,” she said.
Previously, Alma Sardas attempted to host the grand opening in mid-January, but with complications, she had to reschedule.
“Anytime I think I was going to open, I’d be like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m so embarrassed,’” she said. “And people would just reassure me, ‘You’re fine. We’re going to be here for you. We’re waiting. Whenever it comes, it’s going to come, it’s going to be good.’”
Before the soft opening, Claudia Sardas said, their family rallied to put the store together.
“We just got organized. Whatever we had to do, roll up our sleeves, help her put the bookshelves together, help her organize the books to make it look the way she wanted them, cleaning, running to the store to get her supplies, making sure all her ducks were in a row,” she said.
Daydream Bookstore Cafe sits on East Front Street on March 25 in Arlington. The shop is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Alma Sardas’ fiance was also a huge support.
“He makes us live a romance story every day,” she said. “He’s the best.”
As a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, one of the reasons Alma Sardas centered her bookstore café around romance was because she wanted others to experience loving love.
“I love being able to dive into there and finding out somebody else’s love story,” she said. “And just being enamored by somebody else and reminding myself, those emotions are real too, even if they’re fictional in the same time.”
In romance stories, there are a lot of ups and downs, just like Alma Sardas’ journey to making her business happen, but she said it is worth it.
“The story alone of Daydream coming to life and coming to fruition was just like that. It goes through the trials and tribulations of how much do I love the store, and how much is it worth it to put up with everything that’s going through that way we have our happy ending,” she said.
The community around Front Street is small but mighty.
Joanna Workman said she and her sister, who co-own Donna’s Gift Closet, are excited to have Daydream in the area.
“It’s a really cool area, lots of small businesses, a lot of small women-owned businesses,” she said. “That is a huge thing, and women have to support women.”
When asked what she wants to be known for, Alma Sardas said she hopes Daydream will be around for many more years to come and that she can look back on a great run.
“I just want to be known as a girl who followed a passion, who had a dream, who is striving and working her tail off every single day to make it happen,” she said. “And with the support of my family, my loved ones and the amazing community that we have here, we’re able to do that.”
@soph.zhao @marupudisairam