7 Brew Coffee is a growing Drive-Thru coffee shop brand and they plan to be pouring into the Ganttown Plaza in Washington Township for their first South Jersey location. Ganttown Plaza is also home to Harbor Freight, Fun City and more!
Founded in Rogers Arkansas, 7 Brew uses a unique drive-thru only “stand” which supports 2 independent drive-thru lanes with an employee-only interior coffee stand.
While it seems there are different configurations, one classic configuration shows cars enter into one of the two lanes from opposite directions, so that the driver side door of the car always faces that interior center coffee shop stand. Another (like below) is a more traditional “wrap-around-the-building” design.
A YouTube review video from last year of a Johnson City Tennessee location shows the reviewer pulling up in the lane, placing an order with the employee who then brought the order out to the car less than a minute later. (YouTube)
The website list that they have 256 locations but they have moved to a franchise model and we should see significant growth from the brands over the next few years. In July alone they opened 16 new locations!
This would appear to be the first location in the more immediate Philadelphia Metro. Google maps shows locations in the Reading and York areas.
7 Brew Coffee – Washington Township
For the Washington Township location they will be opening in a “pad” location in front of Harbor Freight. Currently the front area is a parking lot which is never used, and has been presented as available for lease for some time now.
The current marketing materials for the shopping center show that a lease has been signed for the spot but they do not list 7 Brew at the tenant at this time.
Industry sources tell me though that the deal is signed and they’re moving forward with starting the process of gaining approval from the local Washington Township Planning/Zoning boards, who would need to approve it due to this being new construction. A date for that hearing has not been set yet.
Since this development is fully within the parking lot of the shopping center and likely has no roadway access changes to highways owned by the State of New Jersey or Gloucester County… the approval process may be more streamlined requiring only Washington Township approval.
Once approved the development effort can move quickly. While of course site prep and drive-thru lanes need to be created on-site, the 7 Brew buildings are modular and created off site. Literally one day nothing is there, and the drive by a day later and the entire building is in place on the site.
The drive-thru only and modular build mode is very reminiscent of the Checkers burger stands!
7 Brew Coffee – Experience
7 Brew coffee offers a freshly brewed premium coffee, saying they can do this in record time due to their innovative two lane drive-thru construction.
It’s an interesting coffee shop menu because on one hand they have a wide variety of drink options to choose from but then also it’s presented in a very simple format to make it easy for someone to decide on what to drink.
For example the name 7 Brew comes from the original 7 distinctive recipes of coffees such as Blondie, Brunette, Cinnamon Roll and others.
Honestly I like the concept because whenever I stand in front of a coffee counter wanting to try something different I’m completely lost as to what to order… and I could see how this would make it easy for me and others.
Beyond those seven originals they also offer a few other categories of drinks including cold brew, 7 Energy premium energy drinks, 7 Fizz flavor infused sparkling water, classic coffee drinks (including lattes, mocha, Chai latte), teas and lemonades… and even a selection of smoothies and shakes!
So it’s a nice variety of drink options from what is really a small coffee stand. The 7 Brew website says they have served over 20,000 different drink combinations!
The menu does not show any food items… so the big focus is on drinks. But in the linked YouTube review video I saw the gentleman being handed a packaged large cookie.
This story is very early in the process and I’ll have more on it as new milestones are reached… such as the scheduling of the Board meeting.
Links and Location
7 Brew Coffee – Washington Township
5200 Route 42
Blackwood Washington Township, NJ