By Rachael Lindley
Photos by Crystal Wise
Match Point Coffee is tucked in a corner of what once was a sleepy shopping center with a bookstore and a yarn shop, but this space on West 7th Street is tired no more, not in a figurative or literal sense.
The energy in the quaint café is both bustling and personable. The first thing patrons see is a kelly green neon sign above the coffee bar: “What’s your win today?” With its exposed brick walls and sage green wainscotting, there is a subtle yet classy nod to tennis.
The space was formerly a dentist’s office with a heavy mauve color palette.
Owner Scott Keenan’s eye for design is stamped on the coffee shop. “They wouldn’t let me paint the floor like a tennis court, but I’m working on it,” Keenan says, laughing.
The tennis theme was Keenan’s brainchild. As a lifelong tennis player, he liked “Match Point” for its optimistic tone. “It means you’re one shot away from winning,” he says.
The walls feature TCU tennis and other tournament memorabilia, including tumblers that resemble tennis ball cans, and even a tennis ball box by the front door for canine companions.
Keenan spent most of his career in media as the CBS Southern bureau chief and later vice president/news director.
“I managed new bureaus across Miami, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston,” he says. “Sixteen years of 24/7 breaking news and it turns out owning a coffee shop is only slightly more relaxing.”
Keenan got the urge to open a coffee shop while in a very short-lived retirement. He left CBS in 2023 and opened Match Point in the fall of 2024.
When mulling over a possible caffeine business venture, Keenan enlisted the help of friend and neighbor, Dana Tomechko.
Tomechko is a human relations powerhouse who helped launch Target.com and worked in HR at NBC in New York. While walking with Keenan’s wife in the winter of 2023, the pair noticed that the space at 3618 West 7th was available. Tomechko encouraged Keenan to go for it.
Tomechko tells us that she lives by a set of rules:
1. Bet on yourself.
2. Own your voice.
3. Leap and the net will appear.
“We never would have had the nerve to do this if she didn’t say leap,” Keenan says.
So, Keenan and his son worked tirelessly to set up a coffee shop that didn’t just serve as a meeting location, but as a community hub. He was prepared for a lot of delays and bureaucratic nonsense when it came to licenses and permits but was overall pleasantly surprised with how the city wanted the coffee shop to succeed.
With no interior designer, the place came together through intuition, taste and sweat equity. “We were literally shoving the painter out the back door as people arrived for our open house,” Dana says. “I was like, ‘It’s fine! Just hide the roller.’”
While the coffee shop is a favorite among stroller-pushing parents from the nearby Monticello neighborhood, you’re just as likely to see students, athletes and elderly friends attending weekly meet-ups to play games. The sense of communal belonging is palpable.
Each month, Match Point Coffee spotlights a local nonprofit — school PTAs, local food banks, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County, Hope Farm for single moms and boys, First Tee golf programs and more — always with the goal of helping customers connect to causes that feel good.
Match Point has also hosted CPR Training and even speed dating.
Another benefit to the space is a sizable podcast studio available for rent.
In addition to being a vital part of the community, Match Point serves up a great cup of coffee. They specialize in high-quality coffee, whether customers prefer a pour-over style or sweet, iced concoctions.
Keenan’s best friend Kristian Willems hails from Australia and is the shop’s unofficial vice president of beverage curation.
“He is 100% responsible for every recipe,” Keenan says about Willems, emphasizing his coffee expertise and passion for consistency. “We never want people to come in here and say, ‘yeah, I had the iced cardamom latte last time but this time it tastes like dirt.’”
The café serves baked goods and food items like sugar cookies, muffins, scones and breakfast tacos.
Keenan and Tomechko are continually impressed by how the community has welcomed their shop with open arms. All it took was a leap of faith. And maybe some caffeine.
Tucked into a revitalized West 7th shopping center, Match Point Coffee stands out as a new local favorite.
