A Flourshop

Every once in a while, a coffee shop opens up and tries to do too many things at once. Bakery. Florist. Coffee bar. The result is usually a Frankenstein situation where nothing gets done particularly well. A Flourshop on 7th Street is the opposite of that. It is three things and it is good at all three.

I am a sucker for a good shop origin story because the backstory usually shows up in the cup (or food). So I did a little digging. According to a 2018 interview with Your Jubilee, Andrea Tuck taught herself to bake while finishing an ASU degree in Global Business and Marketing. After graduation she waitressed at her mom's Italian restaurant and started slinging pastries for private clients out of the same kitchen. Andrea comes from a long line of Italian women who ran restaurants, so the kitchen pedigree is real. Eventually the side hustle got too big to share a kitchen. She spotted a for sale sign on a space in Central Phoenix, signed within a week and A Bakeshop was born in 2014. By 2022 she had outgrown that spot too, moved into something bigger on 7th Street and added coffee and a flower bar to the lineup. That bigger spot is A Flourshop.

When you step inside, the design hits you right away. You get an immediate split personality moment. On one side, exposed brick walls are warm and a little moody. On the other side, crisp white walls with light blue tables that feel airy and modern. Light wood furniture ties it all together. Big windows pour in Phoenix sun. There are fresh florals scattered around because, well, there is a flower bar in here. You get to pick your mood depending on which seat you grab.

So what about the food? The pastries are kind of out of control. I tried the Lemon Blueberry Croissant and the Strawberry Shortcake Croissant side by side, and let me be honest, the Lemon Blueberry won by a landslide. Fruit forward, layered like a fancy European dessert, the kind of thing you would expect at a patisserie in some little French town. The Strawberry Shortcake (with real strawberry cream piped on top) was no slouch either. Pastry prices run from $7 to $11, which is not cheap, but you can taste the scratch work and the daily floral refresh in everything.

Now, the coffee. Some purists might raise an eyebrow at the Nuova Simonelli Appia Life pulling shots here. No pressure profiling. No flow control. Volumetric and timer based pulls only. But (and this is a big but) the bean is doing the heavy lifting. The espresso is Moxie CODECH, a washed Guatemala from a farmer cooperative in Huehuetenango. Bourbon varietal. Limestone soil. Roasted light to medium. Chocolate up front, nougat in the middle and a soft fruited finish. It is the kind of bean that makes a milk drink sing. And here is a nice touch. The hot latte is offered in one size only. To me, that is a green flag. It usually means the shop has dialed in the exact ratio between the espresso pull and the milk volume, so every cup is calibrated the same way. I am a big fan of shops that pick one size and obsess over it.

The drip is Moxie El Nevado out of Colombia, and I have to gush for a second here. El Nevado is one of my favorite beans ever. I am normally the guy chasing high end Ethiopian Gujis, Sidamos and Harrars (you know, the fruit bombs), but El Nevado has me converted on the Colombia side. Dark chocolate. Caramel sweetness. A soft stone fruit finish that sneaks up on you. It is crazy good. There is also a ROC2 nitro cold brew if that is your thing.

Quick parking note for first timers. The lot right next to the shop is fair game, but every sign in the area reads Red Bricks Center Parking Only with zero mention of A Flourshop. Do not let that scare you off. A Flourshop sits inside the Red Bricks center, so you are good to park there.

So here is the deal. A bakery alone could carry a shop. A floral bar alone could carry a shop. A craft coffee program pulling Moxie beans could absolutely carry a shop. A Flourshop runs all three at full speed. That is exactly why it lands on the  Top Craft Coffee Shops page at AZCoffeeShops.com without me thinking twice about it.