I recently completed a full watch of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. Extended versions because, well, I’m extra that way. I’d never seen them before, an admission which left my adult kids and their lovely but nerdy partners aghast and imploring me to be like the little tomato and “ketchup.”
I adored the films and found the life-affirming underlying meanings of the series buried not-too-deeply in the mounds of slain Orcs, elves, dwarves and men. I mention this recent pastime (let’s call it an achievement, it was 21 hours, after all) because this search for Houston’s best coffee has been a bit of an unexpected journey. Like Bilbo and Frodo, I left the Shire with my fellowship – family, friends, my wife – to seek the one coffee to rule them all.
It’s been great fun traveling these lands for coffee finds recommended by people I know and trust because they know and trust coffee, all in duty to the notion we’ll eventually select one spot for the Houston Press’s approaching annual Best of Houston® series. As I’ve stated, these companions were known and loved, so it occurred I really needed an expert guide on this journey, someone wise and vastly experienced. In short, I needed a Gandalf.
So, I turned to the wizards of social media, examined some spellbinding work by Houston’s many food influencers and reached out to Shawn Singh. Singh is known as shawnthefoodsheep to his quarter-million Instagram followers, the food (and coffee!) curious who have helped Singh rack up 10.5 million likes on TikTok. Singh is extraordinarily prolific and has refined his content to perfection. His profile as someone who is deeply ensconced in the city’s culinary scene is ever-growing, with podcast and TV appearances, magazine articles and now even a weird, LOTR-themed story asking for his top three Houston coffee spots.
Shawn Singh Credit: John Sanson
I asked for Singh’s background and he took it way back, stating he “was actually born at Texas Women’s Hospital in downtown.” That’s the kind of detail he provides in his content and what this series really needs. After he left Texas Women’s Hospital, he grew up in Houston and got his undergrad degree from the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. He didn’t begin life as a social media curator until he started post-grad work in California.
“You know, I didn’t do anything related to food. I wasn’t a foodie or a coffee person at all. In fact, I actually didn’t drink my first sip of coffee until 2023,” Singh admitted (no worries, y’all, he has made up for lost time – you’ll see). “But basically, I was doing my master’s at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, saw social media was doing really well and I just decided to set a goal to post every day for an entire year.
“I feel like my situation was kind of unique in the sense of I knew nothing when I started those things. So, you’re kind of learning while you’re posting. I always tell people my 2021, 2022 and 2023 posts are me kind of learning myself. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert. It was kind of me just showcasing myself going to spots, but right now I feel pretty confident at this point. You know, it’s been almost five years”.
When Singh returned to Houston in January 2024, he had moved past posts which rated spots on a 1-10 scale and took deeper dives into culinary experiences. Not criticism, just curation.
“I kind of consider myself a showcaser and a curator just because that’s how my content shifted. I also don’t want to be known as the food reviewer guy for the next like 30, 40 years of my life in Houston. There’s different kinds of content that I want to do, so that’s a big reason why it kind of shifted towards that as well. And it’s a huge reason why I got into coffee and things to do in various vlogs.
“You know, it’s actually really funny. The reason why I got into coffee was not even for coffee, for coffee’s sake. Basically, I was eating out so much that I was like, I need to mix it up. I need to find a way to keep the calories down. So, I was like ‘there’s this thing called coffee’ and that became a journey in its own right.
“I remember the first time I ever had a cold brew. My friends took me to Starbucks. I literally just spit it out. I was like, this is the most disgusting thing in the world, I don’t know how people drink this,” he laughed. “After that, basically, just slowly over time, I was a guy drinking a mocha latte and then I shifted towards a vanilla latte, and now, you know, my drink of choice is primarily pour overs and, if I’m in a rush, cold brew or an iced Americano, because I feel like Houston’s so hot, I just enjoy iced drinks a little bit.”
From keeping the calories down, Singh’s coffee pursuits have led him to “find a beautiful community, a beautiful coffee community in Houston. Coffee shops are becoming part of the third spaces because Gen Z is drinking less than ever. People – Gen Z, millennials – aren’t going out as much. I’m sure you know about it in terms of the wine industry, the liquor industry, they’re getting absolutely destroyed right now. And so that shift is happening towards coffee shops. Also, you know, for affordability reasons. If you want to be at a coffee shop, you spend five, six, seven dollars. And, you can have a good time with your friends without having to expend an enormous amount of money.”
For the record, Singh has been to and posted about more than 70 coffee spots in Houston. There are still hundreds to visit, according to the data. But Singh’s got a solid stockpile for his top three selections.
“The first one, I’m going to say is New Heights Coffee Roasters,” which also happened to be where Singh was answering questions for this interview. “It was really founded by a guy named Charlie McIntyre, so I feel like I’ve gotten to know the staff here really well. They originally started off as a roastery, so they were just supplying various other coffee shops, restaurants, hotels. And then they opened up in the Asch Building.”
“What they do really unique that other coffee shops don’t is that they have these rotating seasonal menus. They’re almost built like cocktail programs more than your standard coffee menus,” Singh said. “You know, you could have a clarified milk punch coffee drink, you could have a bacon rosemary flat white, you could have a raspberry balsamic cold brew spread. I think that’s what really makes New Heights special, is that their creativity is just never ending.
“It’s serious sourcing as well. The roasting gives their drinks structure and they’re making all their syrups, sugars, every drink component, it’s all in house. So they have a lot of fun with it. I always tell people, if you want to have fun, and if you’re a big cocktail person but maybe you don’t drink anymore, definitely go to New Heights.
“Number two, I’m going to say Un Caffè. I’ve been posting about it on social media since 2023 and its founder and roaster is a guy named Soonkack Kook. He went to the University of Houston as well and I’ve gotten to know him, he’s become a friend over the past few years, but it’s the coffee shop that I’ve personally visited the most. I think I’ve probably spent over $500 or $1,000 there over the past few years just ordering coffee,” he said. “He roasts the coffee on site and the menu moves pretty comfortably between classic espresso, you have lighter roast brewing, and he is popular for doing the Korean drink, the Einspänner. It’s very creamy, almost like an ice cream style drink.
“It’s really based on community and good coffee,” Singh said of Un Caffè’s feel, which is steeped in its Midtown neighborhood. “I always tell people, if you’re moving to Houston and you want to meet people and you have the ability to work remote, work at Un Caffè and you will meet people very, very quickly. I’d say it’s like a community center point for Houston right now.”
Every Houstonian needs to visit Mexico City 🇲🇽✈️ I loved CDMX so much that this was my second trip in just three months, and this time I brought my entire family. It is one of those cities I could visit every year and still discover something new. A few of my Mexico City favorites: 🥐 Favorite bakery: Panadería Gala 🌮 Favorite tacos: La Once Mil in Roma Norte 🍽️ Favorite restaurant: Voraz ☕ Current obsession: Espresso tonics and cold brew tonics Mexico City has one of the best food scenes in the world. You can spend the morning bakery hopping, grab tacos from a neighborhood taquería for lunch, and finish the day at a Michelin Guide restaurant. Beyond the food, the weather is beautiful, the city is extremely walkable, and neighborhoods like Roma Norte, Condesa, and Polanco are filled with museums, parks, boutiques, local designers, coffee shops, and restaurants. We averaged more than 20,000 steps a day and still felt like we barely scratched the surface. #cdmx #cdmxtravel #mexicocity #mexicocitytravel
♬ Moonlit Bossa – Johnny Pipes
For Singh’s last selection, he said “I feel like this is like the coffee purist kind of pick. It’s probably the most uncompromising coffee-first experience of the three. It’s Simply Coffie. It’s run by a husband-and-wife duo. It’s a guy named Eric. They moved here from Taiwan and this dude is just really, really passionate about single origin specialty coffee. It’s a really cool shop. I think it’s one of the most vibey shops as well. It’s kind of out of this two-story modern bungalow and their emphasis is really on rotating single origin coffees. They work with a lot of individual producers.”
Google reviews might be slightly lower for Simply Coffie than the others Singh mentioned because “they do no syrups, they do no flavoring, it’s simply coffee,” per its moniker, he said.
“Guests are really encouraged to notice the origin, the processing, the various taste profiles, what makes everything unique. I’d say when you’re at Simply, they almost treat every cup like wine. It’s like an expression of the land, climate and craft. And, the baristas, they really make it approachable, it doesn’t feel intimidating at all.”
Singh’s relatively newfound devotion to coffee has grown beyond Houston’s borders. He recently has fashioned a sort of love affair with Mexico City. Since we’ll be traveling there soon with our friends Jon and Nayeli, whom readers met earlier in this series, I ask for a recommendation.
“All forms of additive are unavailable at this establishment”: At Simply Coffie, it’s simply coffee. Credit: Jesse Sendejas, Jr.
“You know, I would say their specialty coffee scene is just truly insane. I got my recommendations from a barista named Jordan, she actually works at Simply Coffie. She sent me four or five spots, but if you’re in Condessa or Roma Norte when you stay there, there’s just going to be so many amazing spots. We went to two or three coffee shops almost every day because, it’s not only like the coffee’s amazing, but it’s just such cool vibes. It’s almost like it doesn’t feel like you’re in North America at all. It almost feels like you’re in Europe a little bit.
“One place you gotta go is Constela Café. They have a lot of unique offerings and they also do a coffee omakase. I think you have to book it well in advance,” he said. “If you go to one, go to that one.”
Back home, Singh mentioned recent headlines identifying Houston as having the most restaurant closings of any city in the country. The headlines suggested industry instability here but as a first-hand observer who is making daily tracks to our food establishments, Singh “would argue that’s not the case at all. Houston is also opening up the most amount of restaurants in the country as well.
“Houstonians’ tastes are just kind of changing. You have Gen Z and millennials finally having a little bit of consumer spending power and what they want is a little bit different than spots from 15, 20, 25 years ago.
“So, you’re just having these kind of things, but I don’t necessarily look at that as a good or bad thing, it’s just a matter of change,” Singh said with the stoic wisdom of a Middle Earth wizard. “People shouldn’t be so alarmist. Houston’s culinary scene is absolutely killing it. I think my thing is if you see somebody doing something cool, unique and they’re a good person, definitely support your small business because that’s the only way we can stay unique and maintain that amazing culture that Houston has.”
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