Today we’d like to introduce you to Brady And Whitney Johnson.
Hi Brady and Whitney, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We’re Brady and Whitney Johnson — we started our coffee journey back in 2023 when we purchased a coffee trailer after many years of dreaming of opening a coffee shop! Starting small was the best decision we ever made. Between the endless learning that we did in our first year to the journey that this trailer took us on to eventually open brick and mortars, we cannot envision how our journey could’ve started any differently!
We began as Assemble Coffee trailer, serving events in DFW. We served a special event for the Acts 29 conference in Las Colinas in spring of 2024 by parking at their partnering hotel, Texican Court. After spending almost a week serving coffee out of the trailer at Texican Court, all parties agreed we should probably just stay! In about a month’s time, we turned their existing tequila bar into a coffee shop in the mornings. Assemble at Texican Court opened June of 2024. By the end of 2024, our trailer was ready for a change! We moved our trailer to Austin, Texas, rebranded it as Best Friend Coffee, partnered with family in Austin to oversee day to day operations, and settled into a permanent spot in a food truck park at Lone Star Court (yes, Texican’s sister!) in the Domain shopping center.
At the beginning of 2025, Assemble at Texican Court was sold to the hotel to own and manage. The closing of a sweet chapter that we will always be endlessly grateful for! Now that we’d experienced the event space with the trailer and the taste of a brick and mortar with the hotel location, we were eager for the next part of our journey.
Early 2025, we spotted a vacant spot on Grapevine Main Street, one of our favorite areas of the metroplex, and began pursuing it. A few weeks later, by the grace of God, we secured our dream spot! Little did we know, weeks of approvals with the city and a trip to City Council in May stood between us and even starting construction! May 20th, 2025, we were approved and ready to begin construction! Now it was time for the beauty of renovating a 100 year old historical building. August 30th, 2025, our doors opened!
To wrap up our last eight months in a few sentences would be impossible. We can’t say “a dream come true” because we couldn’t have even dreamed this! Grapevine Main Street, the most welcoming community, a building that carries such history, daily regulars from day one, thousands of visitors in our first Christmas on Main, and so much more. We’ve found our place here, and now it feels like it’s always been! What an honor to become a Landmark in this community we love so dearly — your local coffee shop that serves consistency and heart every day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In hindsight, the journey is as smooth as a small business journey can be. In the moment, days can feel hard and heavy — preparing to speak at city council for approval the day before giving birth to our second child, delays in construction, another inspection, flooding in our storage room, the list goes on. As a small business owner, the days can feel like years! But when you get past these “bumps in the road,” you realize that they really are just “bumps” and the road we are on is a road that people dream of being on!
As you know, we’re big fans of Landmark Coffee. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Landmark Coffee is a craft coffee shop on Grapevine Main Street. Our heart is first and foremost for the people that walk in our doors — customers and employees alike. We hope that Landmark feels like a place you’ve always known and an experience you’ve never had. We are passionate about crafting drinks and experiences that exceed your expectations. Our menu includes all espresso based beverages (cortado, cappuccino, latte, and beyond), various tea options (hot and iced teas, matcha, chai, and more), pastries, breakfast tacos, and sometimes bagels (iykyk, @landlinebagels).
We are honored to be in a 100-year-old gas station on Main Street and lean into the timeless nature of the brand. You’ll see our vintage Rolls Royce parked outside, and you won’t catch us jumping on all of the latest trends. We’d rather be your taste of nostalgia, consistency, and tradition.
We love to innovate and make new experiences for our community that align with our heart, vision, and brand. It truly feels like the sky is the limit at Landmark Coffee, and we are so excited to continue growing into this brand in the coming years!
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Personally, I am proud of the way we have trusted the process. In 2023, it felt like we were “giving up” on a brick and mortar for the time being by choosing to purchase a trailer and start “smaller.” After years of touring spaces and working with mentors, we just didn’t have peace about moving forward with a space at the time, which led to our pivot to the trailer. We quickly realized how wise it was to trust ourselves and lean into this prompting. The trailer taught us so much in the first year and eventually led to our “first” brick and mortar at the hotel and then the connection to the food truck park in Austin. It was truly a domino effect! Then when we found the Grapevine location, we were wildly different people. Much more seasoned in small business ownership (2 years seasoned, haha!) and with a different level of confidence for every aspect of the journey. To think we wouldn’t be here, in our dream space, had we tried to jump over all of the little steps of obedience over the past 3 years that would eventually lead us here… trust the process!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://landmarkcoffeecompany.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landmarkcoffeeco/
Image Credits
@CurtisJamesPhoto
