Odd doings in FV: what's with Dutch Bros? [View all]
Strange car queuing is now a fixture at the NE corner of the intersection of Magnolia St. and Talbert Ave. in Fountain Valley.
A Dutch Bros Coffee - more an overgrown kiosk than a shop - was built in the parking lot of the corner strip mall there. It opened on February 9 this year.
People wait in unbelievably long lines for the drive through, snaking through the parking lot (across the painted parking spaces) in two improvised lanes. Dutch Bros employees stand in the lot, directing traffic. It seems that more cars are in line for Dutch Bros than are parked for the strip mall's other residents combined: Sprouts, fish & chips, pizza, ice cream, Thai food, children's martial arts, Dollar Tree, and more.
Most evenings there's also a very long line of standees awaiting their turn at the walk-up window.
The most absurd part of this coffee drink-driven spectacle is that, when the shop opened and for several weeks afterward, the line extended from the parking lot and east down Talbert Ave. Obtuse caffeine aficionados blocked driveways and entrances to residential streets. Fortunately, the city found a way to stop this.
I should note that I, too, love coffee. But I'm not going to waste 90 minutes of my life in my car, adding fumes to Earth's fragile atmosphere, just to satisfy my curiosity about the merits of a single cup.
All that (TL;DR?) is preface to my questions:
Why all the excitement about Dutch Bros Coffee? And do similar phenomena afflict cities in other states?
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