Dark Side Coffee Opens in North Little Rock

Central Arkansas has a new source for fresh-roasted coffee. Mark Whitehead has opened the Dark Side Coffee Co. in North Little Rock and is selling his coffee at the Argenta Farmers Market in North Little Rock and the Bernice Garden Farmers Market on South Main in Little Rock.

He started roasting his own coffee a few years ago because finding the kind and quality of coffee he wanted was hard. Whitehead, who works at an engineering company in Jacksonville, started taking his coffee to work, generating compliments from co-workers. “One thing led to another and it just grew” to the point that he realized “I’ve got to go bigger than this.”

He roasts only 60 to 80 pounds a week currently, and Dark Side remains a side business — for now. “Until it gets bigger,” Whitehead said. “That’s coming really, really soon.”