{"id":3881,"date":"2025-10-15T00:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3881\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:20:06","slug":"san-antonios-hot-merit-coffee-co-to-add-houston-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3881\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio’s hot Merit Coffee Co. to add Houston locations"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Texas’ fastest growing coffee businesses<\/a> is finally making its way to Houston. San Antonio-based brand Merit Coffee Co. is expanding to the Bayou City by adding two locations\u00a0inside the city’s loop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A company representative confirmed to Chron on Tuesday that Merit has signed agreements for the Swift Building at 621 Waverly St. in the Houston Heights, and for the former Starbucks space<\/a> at Terrace Shops, which is located at Westpark Drive and Buffalo Speedway near U.S. Route 59. Both are slated\u00a0to open in early 2026.<\/p>\n

“We celebrated our 15-year anniversary last year, and we had been up to that point expanding from San Antonio into Austin, and then into Dallas,” Merit Coffee Vice President of Sales and Marketing Charlie Paulette told Chron, adding that the company added a location in Lakewood last year but had their eyes on Houston the whole time. “We purposely waited last year, but we looked at Houston with the intent of getting something going this year.”<\/p>\n

Born in 2009, Merit has 13 cafes strewn across Texas\u2014five in San Antonio, three in Austin and five in Dallas. But unlike just about every other chain you’ll see in the world, none of the Merit locations are the same. It’s a feature, not a bug, that Merit has unique build-outs for each of its homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Case in point: The Merit Coffee Co. on South Lamar Boulevard in Austin’s Zilker neighborhood is set inside a historic stone house, while the one just across the Colorado River in Downtown Austin has a more contemporary, almost corner pharmacy aesthetic.<\/p>\n

“We purposely look for places that are unique to each neighborhood,” Paulette said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Swift Building<\/a> in the Heights is a Radom Capital project reimagining a 108-year-old refinery on the Heights Hike & Bike Trail. Renderings of the Swift Building emphasize the building’s brick construction, dramatic windows letting in plenty of natural light, and room for\u00a0greenspace and patios.<\/p>\n

The Terrace Shops<\/a>, meanwhile, is a Fifth Corner development on 1.70 acres. The former Starbucks has prime visibility at the corner of Buffalo Speedway and Westpark. That space protrudes in an octagon-like shape, also allowing for plenty of window space. It’s also well ahead of schedule for Merit, as it has a coffee shop infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Merit imports coffee from across the world and roasts in San Antonio, emphasizing flavor and place of origin. It also features plenty of specialty coffees, including a frozen cold brew and a cereal milk cold brew that includes Fruity Pebbles-infused oat milk and a crushed Fruity Pebbles topper.\u00a0Merit also has a large selection of teas, including its popular iced strawberry matcha.<\/p>\n

Food offerings come from local vendors and shops (for example, in some shops they partner with Tacodeli). Paulette said they still are determining how each Houston Merit will handle food.<\/p>\n

All of this adds up to a coffee brand that’s set on being Texas’ most trusted community coffee stop. You can find Merit at assorted Whole Foods, Central Market and H-E-B locations throughout the state. Plus, Merit hopes to continue expanding in Houston. Paulette, who spent time in Houston before joining up with Merit, said they’re definitely looking around and not settling on two locations.<\/p>\n

“What I learned about Houston when I was here is people are really focused on\u00a0great food and great experiences. So is two enough? Probably not,” Paulette said. “We’re going to reach a good portion of the Houston population, but as you know you can drive 30 miles and not be out of the city yet.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Texas’ fastest growing coffee businesses is finally making its way to Houston. San Antonio-based brand Merit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1703,1704,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-3881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-chronfood","9":"tag-chronstaff","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","12":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}