Caffeine To Go
Seattle's Best Coffee to launch drive-thru kiosk concept in Dallas-Fort Worth
Rendering of a Seattle's Best Coffee drive-thru.Photo courtesy of Seattle's Best Coffee
We'll soon see this logo at 15 stores around Dallas-Fort Worth.Photo courtesy of Seattle's Best Coffee
Seattle's Best Coffee is getting ready to java up Dallas-Fort Worth. The coffee company, which is owned by Starbucks, will open 15 locations in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2013. Ten are set to open in May, spread across Dallas and Tarrant counties.
These locations, listed below, will be drive-thru only. They represent a brand-new concept for Seattle's Best, and DFW is the first market in which drive-thru stores are being rolled out.
"Texas has long been a part of our expansion plan," said Frank Sica, vice president for Seattle's Best. "We launched the new drive-thru concept in Seattle, and now Dallas-Fort Worth is the first target market for the new concept."
Starbucks decided on DFW because of surveys showing the area as one of the fastest growing, most populous markets in the country, with more people eating out compared to the national average.
The first wave of 10 kiosks in Dallas-Fort Worth are all located in front of Walmart stores:
- Tarrant & Beach – N. Beach St., Fort Worth
- McCart – McCart Ave., Fort Worth
- Burleson – SW Wilshire Blvd., Burleson
- Marsh & Frankford – Marsh Lane, Dallas
- Love Field – Mockingbird Lane, Dallas
- Timbercreek Crossing – Retail Rd., Dallas
- Wheatland – Wheatland Rd., Dallas
- Lancaster – N. Interstate 35, Lancaster
- Rockwall – E. Interstate 30, Rockwall
- McKinney – W, University Drive, McKinney
A staffer said that some of the stores had shells already built, and that the kiosks would be dropped down into the space.
In addition to coffee, the drive-thrus will serve a new menu of "dashboard-friendly" food items, including egg sandwiches, pretzel melts, and sweet and savory handheld pies. Seattle's Best also dabbles in schlockier, dessert-inspired coffee drinks, such as birthday cake lattes and caramel candy lattes.
Seattle's Best Coffee began as a coffee roaster in 1970; it roasts more than 20 million pounds of coffee every year. The chain was acquired by Starbucks in 2003. It once had more than 500 outlets, but most were located inside Borders bookstores, which shut down in 2011.
Starbucks subsequently decided to expand Seattle's Best as a drive-thru brand. The company began testing the drive-thru model in Chicago in March 2012 and opened the first drive-thru store in Seattle in November 2012. And now they'll be here. First!
