A new coffee shop has opened on Cherokee Street. The motto at Good Strangers (2416 Cherokee): Good Bites. Gooder Bevs. Goodest Vibes.
The shop will be open daily from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. The official grand opening is this Saturday, March 22, with a DJ from 2–5 p.m.
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Here’s what to know before you go.
The Atmosphere
The large, welcoming space is filled with light, plants, and a range of seating options: tables, booths, and bar stools, as well as soft seats and couches. Owner Sarah Fisher and her father, Gerry, refinished and upholstered all of the wood furniture themselves. In a back corner, there’s a play kitchen for toddlers and a bookcase for reading adventures.
The bar is a work of art in itself. The bar wall tile in pale pink and green came from the 1930s Davis Drugstore soda fountain in Paxton, Illinois. A fellow Cherokees street business owner reassembled it in Good Strangers and worked with Fisher to create the terrazzo-style bar top. The wooden end cap came from a shuttered bank on Cherokee Street.
If the space looks a bit unfinished, that’s because it’s a work in progress.
The Menu
The drink menu seems to have something for everyone, from cold Mexican cokes with Topo Chico flavors, to interesting fruit teas to hot coffee and tea drinks. Kombucha is also planned. The coffee drinks are served hot or cold, and there are some interesting combos. For instance, the tahini latte is made with espresso, sesame butter syrup, and milk (oat milk if you please), and customers can order a decaf latte.
The food menu offers a range of breakfast options—with more in the works.
Small-batch, hand-rolled water bagels from Baked & Boiled. Good Strangers tops them with butter, cream cheese, or one of five house-made schmears ranging from sweet to savory. On our second trip, for instance, we tried the Dalgona schmear on a chocolate chip bagel.
Need something more on your plate? Bagel sandwiches reign here. On our third trip, we tried the turkey bagel sando. Forget simple stuff like mayo and tomatoes; a plain toasted bagel is topped with fig jam, Havarti cheese, and tangy arugula.
Or drop in early for breakfast tacos, served Texas-street-food style, wrapped in foil. The Cherokee Cheesesteak taco, for instance, includes Fourth City Barbecue smoked brisket in a soft taco with a zesty spread. (Tip: Go early, because the tacos often sell out.)
Good Strangers also has daily specials—and, on social media, it’s teased that more dishes are coming to the menu soon.
The Backstory
The coffee shop’s name is inspired by Fisher’s love for Greek culture. “Growing up in St. Louis, my parents took me to the Saint Nicholas Greek Festival every year,” she recalls. “We lived very near the Majestic Diner in the Central West End. I think those two things inspired an interest in and love of Greece in me, particularly from a food perspective.”
In high school, she studied art history and Greek history. “I studied abroad there in college and became acquainted with the Greek culture, like the philosophy of hospitality called Philoxenia. The word translates roughly to ‘guest friendship,’ or a kindness to strangers,” she says. “I am so in love with that philosophy of sharing and welcoming. Philoxenia was a lot for an American mouth, so I shortened it to Good Strangers.”
Fisher’s career path in the hospitality industry began when she worked at Shakespeare’s Pizza in college. She later worked in restaurant kitchens, then moved to the front of house and into management, which morphed into a consultancy position, working on new concepts. “I became an opening mercenary,” she says. “People would call me to help establish systems, hire, design, and do all things necessary to get a hospitality concept going.”
She hopscotched from Austin to New York City to upstate New York before returning to Austin to start her own business. “I was priced out of entrepreneurial opportunities in Austin, so I looked to small towns around the perimeter and happened upon Taylor, Texas,” she recalls. “A renaissance was happening in their downtown—small businesses that were highly collaborative and creative were opening there. I found my niche and opened the first Good Strangers during the pandemic.”
After closing that location, she returned to St. Louis last year to launch the concept here and discovered the coffee shop scene had changed. “When I moved away from St. Louis in 2000, the coffee shop scene was very different,” she says. “It was Coffee Cartel, Mokabee’s, The Grind, and Meshuggah… Those were really special places to me growing up. There’s a very special kind of hospitality to a coffee shop.”
