photo by: Seven Brew Drive Thru Coffee

A Seven Brew Drive Thru Coffee location is shown from the company's website.

UPDATED: 11:50 A.M. FEB. 10, 2023

Lawrence parking lots are becoming more exciting and confusing. Are my fellow motorists honking and enthusiastically gesturing that I’m No. 1 because of my great driving skills, or is that just the double espresso talking? Yes, drive-thru coffee shops are becoming Lawrence’s latest trend, and I have word of a new chain coming to a south Iowa parking lot.

Seven Brew Drive Thru Coffee, a chain that got its start in Arkansas, has filed plans at City Hall for its first Lawrence location. It will be in the parking lot at 25th and Iowa Streets, which is the shopping center that is home to Planet Fitness, Office Depot, HuHot Mongolian Grill and others.

The plans call for the drive-thru-only shop to be constructed right along Iowa Street on the southernmost portion of the parking lot. That will put the new coffee shop basically a couple of doors down from the Iowa Street Dairy Queen. With that being the case, get ready for the sugar truck to make a few more stops along that stretch of Iowa Street. The menu of Seven Brew shows the shop does a lot more than just black coffee, and a lot of the offerings fall into the sweet category.

photo by: Douglas County GIS

The blue star shows where Seven Brew Drive Thru Coffee plans to build a new shop along Iowa Street.

The shop builds its menu around its seven original blends of coffee-based drinks, and pretty much all of them are sweet. The signature Smooth 7 features white chocolate and Irish cream, while other offerings include a cinnamon roll-themed drink and a German chocolate-themed offering complete with coconut. Then there is something called the Triple 7. It is the shop’s Smooth 7 drink with the addition of six espresso shots. (I really won’t need to use my blinker in the parking lot. My eyelids will do all the blinking necessary.)

All the coffee drinks are served either hot, iced or in chiller style, which I think is kind of like a slushy.

The shop also will serve more basic coffee offerings, including a house blend, cappuccino, breve, latte, mocha and several others. Hot and iced teas also are on the menu, including everything from Earl Grey to green tea to the fruity Paris black tea brand. Seven Brew also features fizzes, which are sparkling water infused with flavored syrups and cream and whipped cream, if you so desire. The menu also said the shops offer fruit smoothies and full-on shakes.

It does appear that the location is a drink-only type of store, with no food menu to speak of.

The chain got its start in Rogers, Arkansas, which is part of the growing northwest corridor of Arkansas that Lawrence city and business leaders went to visit last year. The Arkansas business, though, has been expanding into Kansas. It already has locations in Overland Park, Topeka and Wichita.

Of course, it is not alone when it comes to drive-thru coffee shops that are expanding. As I’ve reported several times, Nebraska-based Scooter’s is aggressively building in Lawrence. It is building drive-thru coffee shops at multiple Lawrence locations, including: 23rd and Haskell at the site of a former used car lot; just north of Ninth and Iowa at the site of the former Johnny I’s used car lot; and at 25th and Iowa streets at the site of the former Pie Five pizza restaurant.

Yes, that means Seven Brew will be right across the street from the new Scooters, which is already under construction. As for construction plans for Seven Brew, the documents filed at City Hall indicate work will begin this spring. The property already is zoned correctly for the shop, and is just seeking technical site plan approvals from the city.

The other big coffee news I’ve been reporting over the last year is that Starbucks filed plans to build a new location on Sixth Street. Plans call for the former Cadillac Ranch location near Sixth and Crestline to house a new sit-down and drive-thru shop for Starbucks. But I first reported on those plans back in August, and there has not been much activity on the site. But I did check with planning officials, and they confirmed the project is still being actively pursued by Starbucks and is working its way through the approval process.