The newest addition to the coffee scene, Fair Dinkum Coffee Company, has officially opened its first brick and mortar store in town.
Fair Dinkum is located in the same building as the now-shuttered Cactus Coffee Shop, taking over the storefront as well as many of the staff. However, the ownership is new, and the coffee, relatively so.
“When we got here, I immediately started marketing, hitting the ground running,” said co-owner Chris Clark, who moved to Wimberley with his wife (and coowner) in July. “We met with Cactus Coffee, and she switched over to us as her full-time roaster in August before offering to sell the business entirely several weeks ago.”
Clark and his wife had been running Fair Dinkum as an online nonprofit organization, selling locally roasted coffee out of their home in Deer Park since 2018.
“It started with a simple YouTube video,” he said. “I wanted to see if you could grow coffee in the United States, which I quickly found out wasn’t possible because of our climate. But that led me down an eightmonth rabbit hole of the science behind making coffee.”
Clark started out roasting his coffee with a four-ounce coffee roaster.
“One 12-ounce cup of coffee would take me an hour to roast,” he recalled laughingly.
Shortly thereafter, Clark decided he wanted to put his newfound hobby to good use: as a nonprofit.
“Something I realized as I started looking around Deer Park was that businesses don’t always operate for the communities they’re in,” he said. “Our mission was to change that.”
Over the past four years, Fair Dinkum donated substantial amounts to a number of scholarships, awarding money to high school students, Little League participants and cheer and dance competitors. They also donated hundreds of baskets and raffle items, all benefiting the local area and its residents.
“We pretty much said yes to anybody that asked us to do anything,” Clark said.
Now in Wimberley, the Fair Dinkum owner hopes to make the same — and even larger — contributions.
“We’re hoping to start some programs at the shop for different organizations,” he said, “but right now, we’re just trying to get the shop where it needs to be.”
While the online Fair Dinkum store continues as a nonprofit, the instore business is officially classified as a limited liability company and does turn a profit.
“Now that we’re in this building, I have five employees, and I have to deal with worker’s comp. Insurance,” Clark said. “It just didn’t make sense with a nonprofit structure, and my personal assets wouldn’t have been protected.”
While the business side has been taken care of, Clark said he is still trying to figure out how to increase foot traffic.
“We have a steady flow of people, but I want to make this the locals’ coffee shop,” he said. “We want locals to have somewhere to go, congregate and hang out.”
For this reason, Fair Dinkum offers 10% off in-store to all Wimberley locals.
The business also plans to host late-night events for those of all ages, including movie nights and karaoke. A stage is currently being built on the back of the property.
“We have a lot of really cool changes coming,” Clark said. “There’s a lot in the works, and we’re still so far out. Right now, we just want to get the shop looking nice and aesthetically pleasing while also making it a place that people remember.”
The name of the shop is a hint to what people can experience walking into Fair Dinkum, he said.
“Fair Dinkum is Australian slang for ‘genuinely good,’ and that’s the basis on which the company was founded and how I live my life,” he explained. “There are so many coffee companies out there, and finding a unique coffee name was a task in itself. But a friend suggested this, and it just seemed to fit.”
The company’s slogan is “be kind, be genuine, be you.”
Clark said he and his wife have been appreciative of the response they have received so far.
“This has been one of the greatest experiences of my entire life,” he said. “Moving to Wimberley was something we always dreamed of, and I genuinely feel like it was meant to be. It’s nothing but love, and we couldn’t be more thankful.”
