Perets Dessert & Coffee Bar
Words by Angelina Feronti / Photos by Rachel Maucieri
“After dinner, if you don’t want to go to a bar, but you still want to soak up those remaining 45 minutes of a date, where could you go?”
Perched on the second floor of the Paramount Building on Film Row, above The Study wine bar, Perets offers a rare amenity in Oklahoma City’s nightlife: specialty coffee until 11 p.m. It quite possibly has the latest hours for a coffee shop in the city, beating most locally owned spots and chains alike. For its night owl patrons, Perets offers more than just brewed beverages and desserts. It exudes nostalgic charm, nestled in two vintage-y rooms, and activates all the senses for a cozy experience: creaks of antique furniture, croons of Ella Fitzgerald and Laufey, clinks of tea cups, and murmurs of hushed conversation. Aromas of blended tea spices and espresso mingle in the air with the scent of fresh baked goods available on the shelf. Its enchanting living room atmosphere can infuse a bland study session or date with intimacy, whimsy, and wonder.
Operator and Executive Pastry Chef Carina Taylor and her husband, along with friends and business partners Morgan Mathis and his wife, Shea Mathis, first dreamt up the concept during the coronavirus pandemic.
An early motivation for opening Perets was servicing parent date nights. “In the era of babysitters, you had a window. You didn’t go out often and it required a lot of moving pieces,” Carina reflects. “After dinner, if you don’t want to go to a bar, but you still want to soak up those remaining 45 minutes of a date, where could you go? What if we had coffee and tea?”
When brainstorming, the Mathises had two passions in mind: coffee and sourcing furniture. This almost manifested a version of Perets as a consignment store with a coffee shop in the middle. But that was nixed after a commercial development didn’t pan out. In 2021, Paramount Building ownership invited them in, and Morgan repositioned a focus on coffee and an addition of simple desserts: affogatos and cookies. Morgan’s need for desserts was the start of something bigger.
Amid the pandemic and brainstorming with friends, Carina stepped away from teaching chemistry at OKC’s Santa Fe South and kept her brain active at home by making everything from sourdough yeast to yogurt and selling cinnamon rolls at the Farmers Market. As the vision of Perets came into focus, and despite having no formal pastry training, Carina said, “I could do desserts. What if I stepped in and did that?”
Soon enough, Carina started making the affogato toppings and coffee syrups from scratch. This was influenced by her upbringing in Arkansas City, Kansas, and her grandmother’s small farm. Known locally and competitively for her pies, Carina’s grandmother baked using preserved apples and cherries grown right in her orchards.
With roots planted in a small Kansas farming community, Carina’s experimental approach as a pastry chef stems from her tenure as a high school chemistry teacher.
“The whole process of creating pastries—research, testing, execution—it all falls into my science training. It’s similar to the scientific method. You come up with an idea and test it,” Carina says.
Carina required Perets meet her own expectations for what constituted a great dessert spot. “If I’m going somewhere and expecting dessert, I want an array of things to choose from,” says Carina, who over the past few years has expanded the initial affogatos and cookies menu, offering a rotation of tarts, cakes, bars, macarons, pies, mousse, éclairs, and crème brûlée. Always made with fresh base ingredients, the selection ranges from familiar favorites, like key lime pie and carrot cake, to the more adventurous, like the Xoxolate Decadence affogato with spicy pepita praline and chili cinnamon dust.
With science teacher sensibilities, Carina gives Perets’ baristas and bakers, most with little to no prior professional training, a chance to explore and nurture their passions, as she did her own. In 2025, Barista Ben Stanley headed to an international latte art competition after his initial barista training at Perets. Another employee has been exploring their interest in creating coffee syrups, and their syrup designs will debut in the spring.
Whether you’re looking to stimulate the senses with a Dirty Chai affogato or decompress at the end of the day with a slice of Grandma’s Gingerbread, Carina’s scientific approach to pastries fosters a unique, ever-evolving menu with something for everyone at Perets.
Carina says, “I always love feeding people and making them feel welcome. That’s always our goal: Experience something delicious in a relaxing environment with friends.”
Perets Dessert & Coffee Bar, 701 W Sheridan Ave, 2nd Floor, Oklahoma City, peretscoffee.com, @peretscoffee
