Mural City Coffee Company

A 1920s building on South Foster Street sat vacant and leaking for years before the Swan family decided a coffee shop could bring it back to life, and today that restoration anchors one of downtown Dothan’s most distinctive gathering spots. Mural City Coffee Company takes its name from the wall sized murals scattered across downtown that depict local history, and the shop itself has become something of a landmark in its own right since opening in 2018.

The building’s past lives show through in almost every corner of the space. Originally home to an agricultural supply company and later a defunct electronics store, the structure required six months of soda blasting and floor sanding before the Swan family, Darrin and Gina along with their son Zach and his wife Destiny, could even begin the real renovation work. They sold their own house to help fund the project and worked with a local architect and mechanical engineer to bring the century old building up to code without stripping away its character. A former bank vault from the building’s Singletary & Whiddon era became a quiet reading room, salvaged wood from a removed second floor was worked into the staircase, and copper pipe and reclaimed materials were chosen deliberately over anything that would look out of place in a building this old.

The menu matches the ambition of the building. Mural City roasts its own coffee on site, offering specialty espresso drinks alongside single origin beans available by the bag, with blends like the Hellfire Blend and the Aviator’s Blend representing the shop’s core roasting program. A loose leaf tea program runs deep as well, with options ranging from an Orange Spice blend to a smoked Lapsang Souchong for guests who want something other than coffee. Perhaps most unusual for a coffee shop, Mural City also pours wine on self-serve taps, a detail that sets it apart from almost every other cafe in the region and gives evening visitors a reason to stick around past their afternoon coffee run.

House baked goods round out the food side of the menu, and the shop rents out its space for private events, hosts barista training classes, and runs an online shop selling beans, tea, and branded merchandise for customers who want to bring a piece of Mural City home. The whole operation still runs as a genuinely family business, with the Swans continuing to oversee daily operations years after the restoration wrapped.

Mural City Coffee Company is closed on Mondays but open the rest of the week, with Tuesday through Friday hours running from seven in the morning until nine at night, a schedule that stretches well past a typical coffee shop’s afternoon cutoff. Saturday hours run nine to nine, and Sunday brings a more relaxed ten to six window. That extended schedule, combined with the wine program, makes Mural City just as viable a stop for an evening visit as a morning coffee run, which is part of what makes it stand out among Dothan’s small, independently owned cafes. Anyone visiting downtown Dothan for the first time should plan enough time to actually look around the building, since the restoration itself is as much a draw as anything on the menu.

The shop has also become something of a symbol for what is possible in downtown Dothan’s ongoing revival. A century old building that once seemed destined for demolition instead became a full service roastery, cafe, event space, and small retail shop, all run by one local family willing to take on a restoration most people would have walked away from. For a city working to bring more foot traffic back to its historic core, that kind of investment matters well beyond the coffee itself, and it is a large part of why Mural City has become a point of civic pride rather than just another place to grab a latte.