Palace Coffee In Canyon and Amarillo
Palace Coffee is owned and operated by Patrick and Krystal Burns of Amarillo. They opened their first shop on The Square in Canyon, TX in July 2011. Since then, they’ve expanded to offer a second location in downtown (Polk & 8th) Amarillo. They’ve recently begun planning a third shop, supposedly a second Amarillo location.
Be Kind | Serve Great Coffee
Their tag line is: Be Kind; Serve Great Coffee. Both shops have that feel about them. They’ve held to their kindness directive in the sense that Patrick and Krystal’s coffee shops feel like a small community. But do they serve great coffee? The best in America if you go by their 2014 accolade, first place at DaVinci Gourmet’s America’s Best Coffee in Portland. Need more proof? They made the cut in a USA Today “10 best coffeehouses across the USA,” last year as well. They definitely live by their tag line. Even Portland recognized it over the course of the best in America competition. The event coordinator said this about them, according to Amarillo Globe-News, “The quality of their coffee really helped them stand out… They’re Texas boys with the great hospitality and wonderful smiles. Everybody loved them.” Be kind; serve great coffee indeed. (All photos from Palace’s Instagram/Facebook)
Palace’s motto is definitely a mandate from Patrick, no question. If you catch him in the store, he’ll probably ask you a question or two about yourself. He may even introduce you to someone else standing nearby. He thrives on human connection. He gets excited about connecting people and connecting with people. Being kind isn’t a stretch, because it is a natural out flowing of Palace’s owners.
Likewise, serving great coffee is probably the only kind of coffee Patrick could serve. His exacting, particular personality couldn’t have it any other way. You get the sense each barista is completely knowledgeable before they are allowed to so much as scoop beans. A new barista may struggle with the tilting iPad cash collection station, but they won’t bat an eye when making your Single-Origin-Double with a blossoming foam flower suspended delicately near the rim, an expression known as latte art almost too precise to stick your nose in for a first swallow. Patrick serves systematically great coffee.
Palace Coffee Is All Art… And Craft
If you’re exhausted by every millennially-geared or operated business using words like “art” and “craft” to describe their products and services, Palace Coffee is a breath of fresh air. They truly are craftsman whose creativity is the supplement to their skilled approach to a cup of joe. The drink they won the competition with was all craft: a single cup of coffee, expertly brewed, of course, with a side of espresso. But it was also art: a nod to the culinary upper echelons with a side of lavender caviar (beads of lavender simple syrup), and a coconut foam sprinkled with raw demerara sugar. And just as creative was the drink’s name, the Beeblebrox. This is another bit of Patrick’s quirky, literary personality expressed through coffee, as the drink was named for a character in the classic novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
Recently, to gain even more control of their finely-skilled end product, Palace Coffee has introduced their own line of roasted beans. The names are derived from the Llano Estacado, hence, Goodnight Decaf, after Charles; or the flagship, Monarch, to keep within their phoenix/avian branding design flavor.
A Favorite Drink:
The Cause Latte. This drink is always something different, and proceeds go toward a charity of the month. Each time the Cause Latte changes so does the beneficiary. Recently, they featured the Romona. It was a sweet and creamy Creme Brulee latte, finished off with a blowtorch. Earlier this summer they created the Affogato (vanilla ice cream/espresso) benefiting High Plains Food Bank.
