The James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for their annual awards honoring American food, drink, and hospitality. Coffee has, historically, frustratingly, been shut out from the proceedings. Which itself isn’t entirely surprising, coffee shops not getting shortlisted for food awards, because for all the legitimacy the past decade has brought to specialty coffee, it still hasn’t quite “arrived” in the same way cocktails or beer or distilleries have.
But we may be seeing the dam start to break, and for the first time, coffee is getting shown a little appreciation in the form of nomination. Onyx Coffee Lab’s Rogers, Arkansas cafe has made the semifinals in the Outstanding Bar category of the 2026 James Beard Awards.
To to nominated for the Outstanding Bar award, the establishment must be “a wine bar, beer bar, cocktail bar, coffee bar, or any other business whose primary offering is beverage and that demonstrates consistent excellence in curating a selection or in the preparation of drinks, along with outstanding atmosphere, hospitality, and operations.” Even so, Onyx is the first to follow the traditional Italian definition of a bar, which is to say, a coffee bar.
They are one of 20 establishments to receive the honor this year, joining a nationwide list of wine bars, breweries, and cocktail joints. (And Ayahuasca Cantina, the night time alter ego of Dallas’s Mexican-focused all-day cafe and coffee bar Xamán Café.)
The nominated location is their headquarters inside the 1907 (profiled here on Sprudge), which is also home to prix fixe restaurant Heirloom, Yeyo’s Mezcaleria y Taqueria, and Providers, Onyx’s in-house pastry company. But none of these were named in the nomination, nor was the 1907 as a whole. It was Onyx Coffee Lab, meaning the specific coffee making part is what got the nod.
“The nomination was honestly unexpected, but profoundly meaningful,” Onyx co-founder Jon Allen tells Sprudge. “To see the talent and dedication of our team and the coffee industry at large recognized on this stage is truly monumental.”
Onyx Coffee Lab being the first to break through makes sense, though. They have never shied away from letting their excellence be loud. They lean fully into the experiential side of the cafe and no two are alike. The latest Springdale coffee shop is vast and unlike the Bentonville location, their first big swing on the cafe front. Then there’s the very pink The Momentary and Doyenne, the coffee shop that quietly (by Onyx standards anyway) serves only women-produced coffees. If anyone was going to do it, smart money would be on Onyx.
From the list of 20, five finalists will be announced on March 31st with the awards ceremony taking place on June 15th in Chicago.
Even still, a bona fide specialty coffee shop getting a semfinals nod is a giant step forward. Onyx doesn’t have to win to push coffee into uncharted territory. It’s already there. And for however silly you take awards to be, they are nonetheless a legitimizing force. And coffee, for all the steps taken in that direction, still has a ways to go to achieve the legitimacy of its peers.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
