Australians offer variety to East Dallas

By David Mullen

It’s all about the coffee, Mate.

Brothers Mark and Adam Lowes — native Australians who owned neighborhood coffee shops and cafes in Perth — moved to Dallas and opened their first LDU Coffee store in 2017 at 2600 Fitzhugh Ave., hoping to introduce a coffee vibe missing in the area.

The Lowes have a single word to identify the feeling they bring to their coffee stores: respite. “When we opened our first store in Australia, the word we used was ‘respite,’” Mark said. “We wanted people that came into our busy downtown stores to feel that they were getting five minutes of respite. Even if it was just for a cup of black coffee and a high-five from one of the baristas.”

The success of the first store had a boomerang effect. They expanded LDU Coffee to the Park Cities at 6913 Preston Rd. in 2019. Their third location at 9005 Garland Rd., opened in 2021, is more in line with the store size originally imagined. At less than 1,000 square feet, the footprint is closer to what the Lowes brothers desire.

“We want our stores to be intimate, small and much more European feeling. Our background is Italian espresso post-World War II. Even this is giant for us,” Mark said, motioning within the space. “Stores back home are under 500 square feet. This [Garland Road] feels really nice now. It’s cozy and I love it.”    

 The LDU Coffee experience — or respite — is not forced. Inviting music is played, but never drowns out conversations. No Wi-Fi is available in-store. It is a place where quality coffee, excellent service and a laid-back experience is the standard.   

 With three busy locations, the two brothers can’t be at all locations all the time and must find likeminded people to mind the store. Cait Butt is the store manager at the Garland Road LDU Coffee.  

“I was a customer,” Butt said, a former project manager. “This was very much my place of respite.” The word “respite” sounds different coming from a native-North Carolinian than a native-Australian. “It felt like a place I could get away from office drama. One day, I asked, ‘Are you hiring? I am done with corporate America.’ He [Mark] said ‘Yes.’ I asked if I need to bring a resume, and he said, ‘If you do make sure it is framed.’” 

“We call her Cait the Great,” Mark said. “We try to hire intellectual misfits. That’s our brief for hiring. We like to hire people that ‘get it,’ have been coming in for a while and can see it working for them. Four years now, we have this amazing crew of intellectual misfits that add a lot to every store and make it feel right for the neighborhood.”

 Butt’s colorful resume is framed and displayed on a shelf in the store. A degree from Starbucks University apparently was not required. 

“Our entire energy every day is spent talking about how we can make the service better,” Mark said. “We believe we do make great coffee, but service is the one thing that must be special.” 

The door signage has the store hours — all locations close at 4 p.m. (3 p.m. on Sunday on Garland Road and in the Park Cities) — and “No Wi-Fi.” A limited food menu includes breakfast breads and sandwiches.  

The 800-pound gorilla, or kangaroo in Australian terms, for any retailer these days was surviving the early impact of COVID-19 lockdowns. “We recognized within the first two days of the lockdown that for us to survive, the best thing to do was to promote what we do best,” Mark said. “And that was to serve very fast, high-quality grab-and-go coffee.” 

The Lowes brothers turned to Instagram, did email blasts, added signage, introduced an online ordering system rife with their “cheeky humor” and bought an additional iPad. “It wasn’t our service model, but after three days we were busier than we had ever been,” Mark said. “We thought about how to make an online order personal. We introduced in-store pickup. It awakened a lot of people to what LDU could do. They got the acknowledgment of being a customer. They got to walk inside. They got to hear the music. Maybe that 10 minutes from ordering to picking up their order became the highlight of their day.”

LDU Coffee on Garland Road has convenient parking out front. “When your job is to try to make grab-and-go coffee easier for people, the number one thing here is you have to have easy parking,” Mark said. “It has to be a no-brainer. They aren’t worrying about how I am going to get in and out, especially when they see how fast and simple it is. Now that you can order ahead, ironically, it has become a big part of our business. They walk in, we wave, and they grab their coffee. Without parking, that would be impossible.    

“I think we are very unique in this area. It’s a different style of coffee. It’s a different style of operation. It’s a different service model,” Mark said. “But I also come from a place where if there was a Garland Road in Australia, there would be 30 or 40 espresso bars. When I drive on Garland Road like this, there are four coffee shops between the Lake and Peavy [Road]. There is an enormous population here of people that love coffee. You need options.”

 Does Garland Road need another coffee place? “One analogy that I started using a bit is when we got here is no one is surprised if there are seven or eight taquerias on one street or three or four barbeque joints or three or four burger joints. You just want some variety,” Mark said. “Dallas traditionally just had Starbucks and a couple of independents. It is really healthy to see LDU, Well Grounded, [El] Porton and Cultivar. They are all different styles and all Be-love-ED [Aussie pronunciation] by many.”  

The brothers are allies in the local coffee community. As an example, they use White Rock Coffee beans. “We very proudly use their roasted beans,” Mark said. “We have a great relationship with them. We love their family, and they make beautiful coffee. I think it is a great victory for Dallas that there is one Starbucks at the [Casa Linda] Plaza, and no Starbucks until you get to Northwest Highway. East Dallas is becoming a super cool independent zone. And I think that is awesome because it needs to happen.

“When you come from a country where big box coffee died 20-something years ago, it is only a matter of time when people say, ‘I am going to spend my five bucks with someone I like and someone I know and get a better product and better service.’”