You can get a latte here and also rent a dungeon master.
At Dragon’s Forge Café, owners/married couple Bruce and Jennie Caudle serve fantasy-themed coffee and tea drinks in a space with sorcerous vibes. The café opened Dec. 30 on the second floor at Huntsville arts center Lowe Mill, address 2211 Seminole Drive.
Dragon’s Forge’s interior walls are painted to look like some enchanted tower. There’s an array of curious-looking antique clocks, which Bruce restored and date back to the 1800s. Eyeballs peak out of hanging plant arrangements. A portrait of H.P. Lovecraft hangs near bookcases filled with “Dungeons & Dragons” books and other nerd-chic tomes. There’s even a dragon-adorned throne you can sit on.
Jennie says they wanted to create a place where guests “can come and be who you are, wear what you want and no one’s going to give you a second look.” She adds, “I feel like there’s not really anywhere for nerds to really have a safe haven here (in Huntsville), which is bizarre to me, because this is a nerdy city.” The longer Dragon’s Forge has been open, the Caudles have noticed an increasing number of customers clad in cosplay.
Dragon’s Forge Café. (Courtesy photo)
The atmosphere extends to the drink menu. Signature offerings include a Loch Ness Tea Latte ($4 for 12 ounce, $5 for 16-ounce), which blends vanilla and steamed milk with “hatter tea” from Dryad Tea, a Colorado artisan the Caudles met back when they “were on the steampunk circuit.” Jeannie describes the Loch Ness Tea Latte flavor as “a hug in a cup.”
Other tea drinks include a Loki’s Kiss (rooibos herbal tea blend with white chocolate and peppermint), Elven Mist (green tea “with notes of jasmine and lychee fruit”) and the Hatter (black and white teas blended with strawberry, cinnamon and clove).
As you can tell, teas are a talisman at Dragon’s Forge. Growing up in Mobile, Jennie and her friends would visit the Shamrock Rose and Thistle teahouse there for Sunday tea. Bruce used to collect vintage tea pots and back when he resided in Nashville, they’d have picnics inspired by traditional British tea parties. “We decided, why not bring that same experience here?” Jennie says.
Dragon’s Forge Café. (Courtesy photo)
A four-person tea party at Dragon’s Forge runs $35, and includes a “huge teapot” full of your choice of specially blended tea, as well as a dessert plate with pastries. There’s also side containers of honey and sugar. Teacups, saucers and even brass spoons shaped like small flowers are part of the package too. The result is a an “Alice in Wonderland”/fairy princess aesthetic, especially seated at one of Dragon’s Forge’s long vintage dining tables. “It makes you feel fancy,” Jennie says. A two-person tea party is available for $20.
Dragon’s Forge Café. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com)
The Caudles are casting a growth spell over Dragon’s Forge food options. For now, there are muffins in flavors like blueberry or cinnamon coffeecake, but soon there will also be soups (such as broccoli and cheese), sandwiches (including a “toasty boar” with ham, gruyere, Dijon, multigrain bread) and cookies (coconut, etc.) from Jennie’s grandmother’s recipes.
Dragon’s Forge Café. (Courtesy photo)
For their coffee, Dragon’s Forge uses medium dark-roast beans harvested from a farm in the Andes Mountains. Brewed coffee starts at $2, for a 12-ounce serving. There are also cappuccino and French press options. The café's “spellbinding specialty lattes” include the chocolatey Muddy Dragon. There’s also seasonal lattes, such as the Mardi Gras tinged King Cake.
Coffee plays a key role in the Caudles’ origin story. Jennie was attending Montevallo University back then and Bruce, who has an engineering background, was traveling a lot. They met each other for the first time at Eclipse Coffee & Books in Montevallo. They drew inspiration from Eclipse for Dragon’s Forge’s aforementioned library. “It had a very homey feel to it,” Bruce says. “I always loved bookstores that had coffee shops inside of them and I associate the fragrance of coffee with books. But we wanted to go a step further and bring the fantasy element into it. I wanted it to look like a wizard’s study.”
Dragon’s Forge Café owners Jennie and Bruce Caudle. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com)
The Caudles aren’t mere apprentices at Lowe Mill. They also own/operate a studio here called Vulcan Forge, where they sell objects - including T-shirts, pins, buttons, stickers - emblazoned with Jennie’s mystical-looking digital illustrations. At Dragon’s Forge, you’ll find some of those items for sale on a display topped with a pony-sized stuffed unicorn. Dragon’s Forge Café is open 12 – 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 12 – 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday. For now, they’re keeping their capacity around 36, but post-pandemic that will significantly increase.
Dragon’s Forge Café. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com)
At Dragon’s Forge, they don’t just sell fantasy-themed beverages and doodads, they also sell fantasy itself. Or at least the roleplaying version. The café hosts weekly “Dungeons & Dragons” games, with Morgan Winter, proprietor of Lowe Mill arcade Hale Electronics, presiding as dungeon master. Five-person campaigns are held 5 – 6 p.m. Wednesdays for beginners and 6 – 8 p.m. Fridays for more experienced players. The cost is $7 per person (and includes the use of figures, dice and other game-pieces.) There’s also a group “D&D” package for $50 that adds full tea service and fruits to the gaming. To book a game or for more info, visit Dragon’s Forge’s Facebook page.
Among their many vocational incarnations before Dragon’s Forge, the Caudles once worked as baristas, including at Starbucks. They’ve been in love with coffee culture for a long time, Jennie says. “Everybody’s always excited to get coffee. And for nerds it’s a joke that coffee is magic bean potion, so it sounds like we’re literally selling magic.”
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Dungeons, dragons and tea at new Huntsville café - AL.com
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