A Husband-and-Wife Coffee Shop Is Already Pouring on FM 1488

The espresso machine at 4849 FM 1488 has been running for about three weeks now. Align Coffee Co., in Suite 100, soft-opened on July 3 without much fanfare, which is the point of a soft opening: work out the kinks while the line is short. The shop belongs to Yael Gurwitz-Elkin and Jeff Elkin, a husband-and-wife team, and a formal grand opening is expected in August.

What sets the menu apart is how much of it gets made behind the counter. The nut milks are house-made. The syrups are built from organic cane sugar, honey, and premium extracts rather than pumped from a plastic bottle. The dairy is additive-free. For anyone who orders a latte with oat milk and has never thought about where the oat milk comes from, this is a shop that thought about it a lot.

The baked case leans gluten-free, with muffins and scones made in that style. That is not a small thing around here. Gluten-free options in the Magnolia area have mostly meant a shelf at the grocery store, and a bakery case built that way from day one gives folks with celiac or a wheat sensitivity an actual place to sit down with a pastry.

A motto is painted on the wall: "Fuel Your Flow." The owners also have plans for a patio that welcomes both kids and dogs, which describes most of Magnolia on a Saturday morning.

The shop sits on the FM 1488 corridor, which keeps adding storefronts by the month. A soft opening in July with the grand opening still ahead means there is time to try it before the ribbon-cutting crowd shows up. If you have been in already, tell us what you ordered.