Photograph courtesy of Ark Coffeehaus
When Priscilla Wells and her brother, John Yacoub, were kids, they used to play pretend coffee shop for family guests. “We would make them coffee and affectionately call it ‘Ya-Bucks,’ because it was a spoof on Starbucks and our family name,” says Wells. Many years later they no longer have to pretend: the siblings opened their own coffee shop, Ark Coffeehaus, in Dunwoody in November.
The coffee shop resides in a blink-and-you-might-miss-it strip mall at 4448 Tilly Mill Road, near the intersection of Peachtree Boulevard. The name refers to the refuge that coffee shops provide.
“As we were building in 2020, that’s what we wanted the space to be,” says Wells. “And now even more so when people are still getting used to being out again and finding community all over, it means so much more now to us to know that it’s a place of refuge for our local community.”
Photograph courtesy of Ark Coffeehaus
Photograph courtesy of Ark Coffeehaus
The chance to open a coffee shop finally came at the onset of the pandemic in 2020 when a space opened in the strip mall, which their father owns, and presented an opportunity for Wells to team up with her brother for a truly family-run business. Jeremy, Wells’s husband, hand-painted all of the art on the walls including the logo and signage. In the bathroom, you’ll find his handiwork in the form of cartoon characters from the late ‘90s.
Yacoub’s sister-in-law, Stephanie Kamps, oversees the pastry program and bakes treats from scratch, like the “Better than Biscoff” cookie (a chewy brown butter-brown sugar cookie that’s even better when served warm) and seasonal scones which currently include cranberry orange and cheddar jalapeño. The coffee shop also sells home and kitchen items like cookie cutters and cookbooks.
When it comes to coffee, the Ark team opted to serve Counter Culture. “We go with businesses that have the same kind of ethos as us, so regenerative and sustainable, and that treat their employees fairly, or their farmers fairly, and have pretty much all the certifications to prove that they’re fair trade,” says Wells. Drinks include the usual drip and espresso fare as well as seasonal concoctions, like a pumpkin spice latte made with real pumpkin and the “Chattahoochee River Water” with root beer, espresso, cream, and vanilla syrup. There’s also house-blended teas and house-made shrubs for the coffee averse.
Photograph courtesy of Ark Coffeehaus
One thing in particular stands out in the coffee shop: there’s a bin dedicated to food scraps. All of those scraps are transported to Ebenezer Farm in Mansfield, which Wells and her husband call home and practice regenerative farming. The scraps are fed to easily pleased Nigerian dwarf goats, Kune Kune pigs, chickens, and more. “We’re going to be running seasonal food waste drives where people can bring in their food waste and we’ll compost it according to whatever the regulations are that we’re allowed to on our farm,” says Wells. Products made with their ingredients, like a coffee bean soap, are sold at Ark as well.
