Pull Through Coffee Bar inside Dallas Bike Works is built to be a gathering place where coffee & cycling come together

“This is a coffee farm?”

Christina James recalls asking as she took in the green and lush mountainous landscape of Bogotá, Colombia, with her dad by her side.

James had traveled to Bogotá to reconnect with her father after his deportation from the United States. She hadn’t seen him since she was 3 years old, and at 23, she was meeting him again for the second time. Knowing about her love for coffee, her father invited her to visit a family friend’s coffee farm.

“I always felt like I didn’t know enough about coffee … and I was on that farm, and I had this connection to it,” James says.

That was 13 years ago. But today, that moment has grown into Pull Through Coffee Bar, the coffee shop James opened inside Dallas Bike Works at White Rock Lake. Equal parts cafe and cyclist community hub, the bar serves as a gathering place for cyclists and families.

But before the farm, the reunion with her father, the boost to her self-confidence and Pull Through, there was Aunt Diane and Washington, D.C.

James’ early childhood was marked by constant moves. From Mesquite to Richardson to Dallas, she spent her formative years under a strict, conservative household. She says her homeschooling left significant gaps in her education and social skills.

“When I was 17, I left home. I ran away, actually,” she says. “My education was behind, and my Aunt Diane helped me get my GED.”

Part of what pushed her to leave, she says, was feeling unable to be open to her family about her relationship with a girlfriend she had in high school. Once with her aunt, James found a different environment — one where she truly felt accepted for the first time.

“(Aunt Diane) helped me dream,” James says. “But the biggest thing was either I go back to school, go to college, or get a full-time job.”

James chose part-time classes at a community college and a full-time job at Starbucks where she would work for a decade. She says she liked the rhythm of the work — the efficiency and the structure — but what mattered most was that it pushed her into daily interactions with people.

She moved up from a barista role into a district manager role, relocating several times from the East Coast to California, and finally back to Texas.

Once in Dallas, James decided to step away from chain coffee and focus on working with local mom-and-pop businesses like Cultivar Coffee Roasting Co. The switch from fast and speedy customer service to quality and production opened up another side of the coffee industry she had not tapped into yet.

“Jon, the owner, taught me a lot. Cultivar taught me quality and tasting (coffee) notes, and it definitely expanded my knowledge of coffee through him, and he also became a huge mentor,” James says.

But returning to Texas also left James feeling isolated. Between 2010 and 2016, she struggled with drug addiction before finding relief in an unexpected place: cycling. The White Rock Lake cycling community became her outlet. After buying her first bicycle from Trek Bicycle Corporation, James began receiving invitations to join group rides.

“That’s what actually made me move from McKinney to Dallas,” she says. “It felt like there was a lot more going on for people my age.”

In 2020, James was racing for Bicycles Plus while simultaneously going through a breakup with someone on the team. She says the breakup pushed her to search for a new bike team and ended up finding space at Dallas Bike Works. That same summer, James joined the shop’s racing team and began to see the potential of a coffee bar.

“It’s kind of desolate in that little pocket of area,” James says. “There’s not much room for other businesses to move in. It’s this little space where there’s no food, no drinks, there’s nothing else that will keep you there.”

James shared her business idea with the owner of Dallas Bike Works, Boyd Wallace.

“I jokingly over beers asked Boyd, ‘Hey, you should open up a coffee shop, and then I’ll run it.’ And he was like, ‘I don’t know anything about coffee. You should open it and then you know, pay me rent.’ And it was like we were playing chicken with each other,” she says.

Looking back, James remembers Wallace’s anticipation about opening a coffee shop.

“I had wanted a coffee shop inside since I first opened but there was no way I could manage both, so it fell by the wayside,” Wallace says. “My only regret is that we didn’t form this partnership sooner. She turned both our visions into a reality.”

After talking to three different business owners and hearing their suggestions, James circled back with Wallace to show him a complete business plan. With Wallace’s approval, James began designing the layout of her coffee shop in 2021. However, during the beginning of construction, James lost her contractor.

“I remember Boyd was like, ‘Oh, we can do it ourselves,’ and we didn’t get open until February 2023 when it really took like a month to build,” James says.

But the two-year wait paid off.

Today, Pull Through Coffee Bar welcomes more than 400 coffee enthusiasts on the weekend and more than 250 during the week. On top of that, twice a year, it hosts a women’s ride, where women can connect in a male-dominated sport.

Saturdays bring a steady stream of runners stopping in after completing their weekend routes. On Sundays, cyclists and neighborhood families fill the shop, whether they’re browsing the bike selection or grabbing a drink before heading out for the day.

But the convenience of having a bike shop and cafe under one roof isn’t the only thing drawing customers.

“I love having a sense of humor in everything that I make or create, and the names were a big way for me to do that,” James says.

One standout is the Muscle Mommy Matcha ($9), an iced protein matcha latte James says is “for the girls.” Another customer favorite, Bonked But Not Broken ($8), is also an iced protein matcha inspired by cycling slang.

“It’s kind of a play on the saying we have in cycling when you’ve just ridden 100 miles and you’re on the verge of falling off your bike,” James says. “We usually say, ‘Oh, I’m bonking,’ meaning I’m past the point where nutrition can help me.”

James’ favorite summer drink is the Goji Matcha Sunrise ($8.75), made with goji berry syrup, coconut water, oat milk, ceremonial-grade matcha and topped with the cafe’s signature “manic pixie dust.” Another standout is the Sultry Saffron Sunset Spritzer ($8.75), a sparkling espresso drink made with saffron syrup, sparkling water and a floating shot of espresso, then finished with dried guava and mango. The summer menu will be available through September.

Thirteen years after standing on a coffee farm in Colombia with her father, James has built a place where coffee means more than just being served in a cup. It’s a place rooted in community — something James spent years searching for.

“It’s a place for everyone,” James says. “Whether you’re a dog lover from the neighborhood, live close by or a cyclist coming off the trail, people come together on that patio. I’ve watched so many people meet each other there who probably pass each other every day.”

Pull Through Coffee Bar, 4875 W. Lawther Drive, Ste. 101, 469.668.2663