Deja Brew brewing up business in Carrollton

By Editor | September 17, 2024 |

One-year-old Theo Mallott, son of Lindsey and Kaylea Mallott, had the distinction of being the first customer through the drive-thru on opening day, Aug. 30. He anxiously awaits his frozen milk from his dad while waiting in his “car.” (Submitted photo)

By Carmen Ensinger

Whether one is looking for iced coffee, regular coffee, lotus drinks, frappes or just a glass of lemonade, Carrollton’s newest business can fill those needs with literally hundreds of different drinks to choose from.
DeJa-Brew is owned by Lindsey Mallott and his wife, Kaylea, but it was Lindsey who had the dream of owning his own business.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved the taste of coffee,” Mallott said. “I grew up drinking coffee with my grandma when I would spend the summer with her. Actually, my whole family are big coffee drinkers. So, it just seemed natural to open a business around something I loved.”
As he grew older, he started experimenting with the different types of coffees out there.
“I started exploring expressos and all types of different coffees,” he said. “Then, when I went to study abroad in South America and the surrounding countries – they have the best coffees ever. I really started to love Colombian and Brazilian coffee so that is what I offer here as well.”
If plain old coffee sounds boring, Mallott can spice it up for you in any number of ways.
“Right now, our specialty menu on coffee is butter pecan pie, strawberry shortcake and a white chocolate mocha,” he said. “But we can add anything you want – we can add strawberries, caramel, chocolate or just about anything we have. If we have it and you want it in your drink, we will put it in there for you.”.
One thing that is a big hit is what is called a “dirty soda.”
“There are a lot of people who love our dirty sodas,” Mallott said. “They call them dirty because most of the time it is a cola that you add cream to and it turns a light brown – hence the name dirty. But we go a step farther. We can add real fruit like strawberries, cherries or raspberry. We even have a name for the fruity drinks. We call them Deja Brew Dirty Sips.”
While there are a lot of places serving lotus drinks these days, one will never find more of a selection than at DeJa-Brew.
“We offer 111 different combinations of lotus drinks,” he said. “More than any other place because a lot of places just want to keep a simple menu. When we had the camper, we did every option available and people could basically make their own.”
They also offer a wide variety of blended drinks, such as fruit smoothies, frozen lemonade and, a fan favorite – lemonade shake-ups.
“We offer lemonade shake-ups just like the ones you would get at the fair,” he said. “We also offer something new that is really catching on and that is a lime shake-up. Just add a little sugar and cherry or strawberry and people love those.”
For the less sophisticated palate, they offer specialty hot chocolates, regular hot chocolate, flavored lemonades and chocolate and strawberry milk.
In the near future, however, they plan to start serving breakfast.
“Slowly, we are going to start adding food to our menu,” Mallott said. “We are going to do breakfast sandwiches and quick and easy to-go meals and then gradually add a lunch menu and then dinner. We want to have some soups available, but our specialty is going to be our sloppy joes, which is an old family recipe.”
When asked what the most popular drinks are at this point in time, Mallott said it was probably the butter pecan pie latte for the coffee and the pink cotton candy or castaway lotus drink.
“The butter pecan pie latte people are absolutely loving,” he said. “We add caramel, butterscotch, brown sugar and whipped cream. We also offer some lemonade infused drinks. You can get them carbonated or noncarbonated. It is a twist on lemonade and people are falling in love with them.”
At the moment, Deja Brew is open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday – partly because Mallott is still training some workers and is also the Carrollton High School Spanish teacher.
“Saturday, we hope to be open all day and maybe Sunday as well,” he said. “We would like to be able to open in the mornings.”
Oh, and for those who just want a regular soda or regular coffee, he offers that as well.
“We offer a 12-ounce cup of just plain coffee for $1 and we offer any size soda for $1.25,” he said.
There wasn’t a lot of fanfare behind their soft opening on Aug. 30, but Mallott said the community came out and supported the new business more so than he ever expected.
“We opened on Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day, which was Monday and then we had to close Tuesday because we had to restock,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the support from the community. It was awesome.”