Oak Cliff is home to the perfect spot for coffee and animal lovers.
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Photography by Kathy Tran
Cedric’s Coffee Truck is open every Saturday at 12th and Edgefield from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and donates 100% of their tips to local dog rescues.
“I think we’ve carved out a really unique space that is not Bishop Arts, not quite Elmwood, not quite like Illinois or Kiest or anything like that,” owner Erin Ortegon says. “It’s just this really sweet spot where there’s not a whole lot of like restaurants or commercial spaces, and so we’ve been very well received.”
The truck is named after Ortegon’s dog Cedric, who she adopted in the last semester of her senior year of college. Cedric passed away last November and was Ortegon’s driving reason behind being an advocate for rescues and adoption.
Cedric had been with Ortegon for almost 14 years. She got him in Austin, brought him back home to San Antonio, and then they moved to Dallas about seven and a half years ago.
Ortegon says she always wanted to open some kind of coffee shop or deli once she moved to Dallas. She couldn’t find a favorite coffee shop in the city, so she talked to her husband, Sergio Arrieta and decided to start her own spot.
“We kind of started thinking about, ‘Well, what would that look like?’ and building out a business plan and figuring out, ‘Will they even let us sell their coffee?’” Ortegon says. “So we reached out to Wild Gift, and they said yes, and we went down there and did a full coffee tasting. And so while we were doing all that, we were also figuring out, ‘Do we want a brick-and-mortar shop, or do we want a coffee truck?’”
Coming from San Antonio and Austin where food trucks are very popular, they decided to pick the latter.
“We started pricing out trucks, and we finally found a place out in Georgia that actually built our truck for us, exactly like specs to what we needed, for the espresso machine, stuff like that,” Ortegon says.
They knew they wanted dogs to be at the forefront of their business. Ortegon opened Cedric’s in April 2024 and decided to donate their tips to a different local rescue organization every month.
“Not only did we have Cedric, but I had also adopted two other dogs over the last 15 years or so, and my husband had one dog, and we always knew we wanted to somehow integrate a form of giving back,” Ortegon says. “We weren’t quite sure how that was going to look like when we started out, and ultimately, we just decided that we would donate all of our tips.”
Ortegon says they try to focus on foster-based rescues. They also do work with Dallas Animal Services, who have become good friends of Cedric’s.
“It’s been really cool to see that partnership grow. They have just done a really great job of maintaining an open line of communication with us, and they’ve been super helpful,” Ortegon says. “We had a big event one year and invited them out, and they were able to kind of put a table up, and we had a bunch of people bring their foster dogs by the event to meet people. It was really good exposure for them. And also, one of the dogs that was there got adopted. And then, since the event, three of the dogs have gotten adopted.”
The goal is for Cedric’s to expand outside of their Saturday-only hours, and they are currently looking to open a brick-and-mortar location so they can be open every day.
Ortegon says the community has been wonderful, and people drive from all over Dallas to come see them.
“We don’t stop and talk about it. We’re just so busy,” Ortegon says. “They have just been so, so welcoming. The best part is being able to give back.”
Cedric’s Coffee Truck, 345 S. Edgefield Ave.
@cedricscoffeetruck
