Dancing Goats Coffee opened on Jan. 10 on the first floor of the R. Randall Rollins Building at the Rollins School of Public Health. The Emory University location marks the chain’s sixth store in metro Atlanta, joining other locations such as Decatur, Ponce City Market and Buckhead, and the eleventh coffee shop on Emory’s Atlanta campus.
In the middle of a quiet, spacious study area, the new Dancing Goats shop is outfitted with private rooms, individual study pods and multicolored chairs.
“I like the study space,” Abel Lindley (22Ox, 24C) said. “[It’s] really nice around the coffee place. I think it’s nice because [the Georgia Institute of Technology] has one. It gives more variety and it brings more people to this side.”
The shop had a soft opening on Jan. 9, where they gave out complimentary drip coffee and snacks, according to Dancing Goats’ Director of Operations Aaron Shively.
In an email statement to the Wheel, Shively said he was excited at the opportunity to open on campus, adding that he knew Emory would be a good fit. He noted that the location has lots of seating for studying and holding meetings.
“We’ve considered opening a retail location around Emory Campus in the past, so when the opportunity to open ON campus was presented to us, we knew that it would be a great fit,” Shively wrote.
An Emory community member places an order at Dancing Goats Coffee. (Natalie Sandlow/Staff Photographer)
Dancing Goats originated in Olympia, Wash., before establishing its first store in Atlanta in 1994. More locations then opened in Decatur in 2007 and Ponce City Market in 2012. The coffee shop prides itself on its dedication to “low-impact sustainability business practices,” boasting a “near-100% composting and recycling,” according to their website.
Lindley said that Dancing Goats will bring more people to the Rollins area since not many people know that there are study spaces, a food court and a Starbucks on that part of campus.
“The actual coffee is a bit strong, but some of it is OK,” Lindley said. “It’s a bit overpriced, but it gives good variety rather than having Starbucks.”
Describing the matcha as subpar and the iced latte as “OK,” Lindley also noted that Dancing Goats is more expensive than other coffee shops on campus. For example, as of Jan. 16, a regular 12-ounce latte is $4.25 at Kaldi’s Coffee, while the same drink sells for $4.55 at Dancing Goats.
Others were less excited about Dancing Goats’ opening.
According to Ellen Wu (25C), the iced matcha latte was “terrible” and “tasted like cold milk with a hint of grass.”
For Sydney Holdman (26C), who owns a coffee machine , she prefers not to buy coffee when she can make it on her own at a cheaper cost. However, the location offers a convenient cup of coffee on the way to an early morning biology lab class, which Holdman said would help her in her morning commute.
“We’re very excited to be a part of the Emory Campus community,” Shively wrote. “Emory students and faculty have long been a part of our retail clientele, especially so at our Decatur Dancing Goats Coffee location.”
Ashley Zhu (she/her) (25C) is from Dallas, Texas, majoring in biology and minoring in sociology. She is the vice president of recruitment for the Residence Hall Association, a sophomore advisor for Raoul Hall and a staff writer for the Emory Undergraduate Medical Review. She is involved in cell biology research at the Pallas Lab and is a BIOL 141 Learning Assistant. Zhu enjoys FaceTiming her dog, stalking people's Spotify playlists and listening to classical music in her free time.
Kevin Tanos (25C) is from Jakarta, Indonesia, majoring in Biology. Outside of the Wheel, Kevin is an Executive Board member for the Emory International Pre-Health Organization. He previously interned for the U.S. State Department and the Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California. He also loves exploring coffee shops around the ATL
