Onyx opens chocolatey café in Springdale
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Inside Onyx's new downtown Springdale café. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios
Onyx Coffee Lab, NWA's coffee company institution, is returning to Springdale with a spacious version of its familiar coffee shops that will also offer desserts, cocktails, wine and chocolate made in-house.
The big picture: Onyx's addition to downtown Springdale is part of a string of restaurant-and-renovation development taking place over the past few years.
- There's a "rising tide" mentality among the hospitality community here, Onyx co-owner Jon Allen told Axios, meaning there's a shared belief that everyone will do better as more people visit the area for these new offerings.
State of play: The new location opens fully on May 5. It occupies three stories of the former First Security Bank complex on Emma Avenue and has been two years in the making.
- The walk-up window and outdoor seating opened to the public a couple of weeks ago and is already more popular than the owners expected, Allen said.
The intrigue: The new space dwarfs its typical locations, clocking in at a whopping 6,400 square feet. And Onyx's Terroir chocolate brand will also be headquartered here.
- Andrea and Jon Allen started Onyx in 2012 in Springdale, but they had been without a location there since 2019, so their new mega-cafe is a homecoming of sorts. The coffee company's headquarters and roastery will remain in Rogers.
Zoom in: The ground floor hosts the primary café and most of the seating, but guests can also head down to the basement bar and watch Terroir chocolate being made. The basement will host wine and chocolate pairing events, along with talks from farmers from all over the world.
- Onyx wine club members will also be able to stop by for their monthly bottles curated by Andrea Allen, offering club members a second location beyond Hail Fellow Well Met in Johnson.
- Diners can expect full entrées for breakfast and lunch, plus desserts and chocolate.
Zoom out: For some, working remotely means plopping down all day at a coffee shop, and some businesses mitigate that with time limits or asking people to leave.
- But Onyx is offering a free space upstairs with desks for those who want workspace, featuring a 16-seat boardroom table.
What they're saying: Allen said he hopes the new Onyx site will draw visitors from neighboring cities like Bentonville.
- "We didn't just want a small café in Springdale," he said. "The goal is to make a mark."