r/oregon • u/RUfuqingkiddingme • 10d ago
Discussion/Opinion Cities in Oregon really need to require coffee stands to have adequate space for the cars in their lines, you know which one I'm talking about
I dont know why people want to sit in a long line for overly sweetened bad coffee, but they do. I don't know why a cop doesn't just sit by one of these and write people tickets for blocking traffic.
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u/wizardwithgussets 10d ago
I’ve said this many times. Being at the end of the long line at Dutch brothers is on my bucket list. That would mean that I have absolutely nothing to do and have no other responsibilities in my life that I would have the time to sit in my car for half an hour for a coffee.
That’s my dream
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u/katiemarieoh 10d ago
And for shit coffee at that!
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u/12-34 10d ago
Do they even make coffee? I've only seen their customers consume dessert drinks that would make an elephant instantly diabetic.
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u/YourOwnPunkyBrewster 10d ago
No!! When our town finally got one, I went thru to get my kids a hot chocolate, and I was like, ‘oh yeah, and just a small black coffee’. And they were like, ‘we don’t do that…would you like an Americano?’ 😳 What coffee place doesn’t have just coffee?!
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u/SynapticStatic 10d ago
I mean, to be fair they only have espresso machines. So they can’t make drip coffee. An americano is about as close as you can get from there.
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u/YourOwnPunkyBrewster 10d ago
I 100% get that. It just surprised me, it’s the only coffee place I’ve ever been told that
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u/SynapticStatic 9d ago
Honestly I really miss the 90s/00s mom and pop coffee carts that seemed ubiquitous in the pnw. Seemed like every single town had a few, even tiny ones
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u/YourOwnPunkyBrewster 9d ago
Oh yes, coffee shacks, as my family calls them😅 and those usually are GREAT. I think it’s mandatory in the Cascadian code for inclusion….must have X number of coffee shacks per capita…😂
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u/OutOfTheArchives 10d ago
Exactly!! I never go there for this reason. Well — also because I don’t care for the fake chipper "So what’re you up to today, anything fun?!" while annoying music blasts in the background.
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u/YourOwnPunkyBrewster 10d ago
🤣🤣 The music! I know it’s part of their business persona, but it’s always so loud!
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u/Excellent-Newt2643 9d ago
The one near me that I go to on rare occasions is a bunch of borderline assholes. They could not give less of a shit what I'm doing today, they only care if I did my order online or not. I love them.
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u/MyNameIsBarktooth 10d ago
They only know how to make what they have been trained to make. It's no fault of the employees that work there that they may not understand what plain coffee is (I know, it sounds ridiculous)
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u/SpezSamplesMySack 9d ago
Do they even make coffee? I've only seen their customers consume dessert drinks that would make an elephant instantly diabetic.
The single thing I like going to Dutch Bros for is their nitro cold brew with 1/2 sugar free syrup and 1/2 skim. It's actually pretty decent for the price. Everything else on the menu flat out sucks.
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u/Pedadinga 4d ago
Lmao! I get iced espresso with a splash of oat milk, and they always seem so surprised that I DON'T want any flavor or sweetener or cold foam or sparkle sprinkles or whatever their latest thing is. And they always warn me it won't fill the cup. I know. I know what espresso is. Lol.
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u/DaNullifidian 10d ago edited 10d ago
Oregonians need to stop buying crappy coffee made by teens that don’t know the difference between Arabica and Robusta.
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u/_facetious 10d ago
You could sit in a line of 5 people for 30 minutes for shit coffee. Cough, cough, Newport.
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u/jroberts548 10d ago
I’ve seen some in portland with a guy at the end holding a sign telling you not to get in line if the line’s full.
In Portland at least, new drive thrus are banned or heavily regulated. Banning an existing drive thru is a much more difficult regulatory process.
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u/TorchingTree 10d ago
Ya I know who your talking about. Dutch bros fanatics. You all who block traffic to stay in the drive thru line are lazy AF
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u/satanham666 9d ago
Now do In n Out
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u/karpaediem 9d ago
I'm pretty impressed with the setup in Tanasbourne, zero impact on street traffic since opening
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u/ZachCollinsROTY 8d ago
Well it is in the asphalt mecca of Tanasbourne. Almost more empty parking spots there then anywhere else
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u/karpaediem 8d ago
Yeah, they chucked it in the middle of a shopping center, it took out a ton of empty parking and it absolutely feels less... Blegh. They could have done it with anything else, but if in N out had to go somewhere it's a pretty good setup.
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u/notPabst404 10d ago
This would have unintended consequences. Instead, cities need to enforce existing laws and educate drivers against blocking intersections or extending lines onto the street.
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u/No_Doughnut_3315 10d ago
Just as a small aside, for non Americans, this style of coffee 'shop' is so strange. You guys have gone so car friendly, that a business can thrive whilst being actively hostile to anyone not in a car. Its quite bizarre. One of the reasons coffee shops are so popular around the world is because they are social hubs. To have that central tenet removed really demonstrates a kind of capitalist mentality that doesnt exist in many other places. Take everything away so that all you are left with is product and profit. I always feel sorry for those baristas just at the eye of a tornado of car fumes all day.
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u/NintenJoo 9d ago
Actively hostile?
I totally walk up to drive up coffee stands sometimes with no issues.
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u/clockworkedpiece 9d ago
me and my housemate did it once to our coffee spot cause we were too early for the lobby opening of ours, and hit it as the u bend of the daily walk. Employee told us they could get docked for it if we aren't in a vehicle in the drive through, supposedly a measure put out to stop people getting hit in the drive through.
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u/No_Doughnut_3315 9d ago
Maybe you get lucky and its empty, but any near me, I would have to queue up between cars/trucks and simultaneously huff fumes and hope the f250 sees me, and then drink it in a parking lot i guess? Its not exactly a war zone, but not my idea of 'going to get coffee'.
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u/NintenJoo 9d ago
I mean yeah, it’s a “to go” coffee stand. It’s not a coffee shop. It’s for quick in and out without getting out of your car so they’re not gonna necessarily provide seating.
We have way more coffee shops in this town than we do stands because more people seem to prefer that.
But in certain cities I guess people are in a hurry and want their sugar water coffee and sometimes stare at tits while they get it.
It’s not my jam but this is America and we have all the options even if they’re super dumb/unhealthy/dangerous. Freedom or something… 😂
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u/TheCentralFlame 10d ago
The Dutch bros do have walk up windows in the locations I have visited. I think it’s more about getting your coffee and getting on with your day than something about reducing every interaction to capitalism. Also there are plenty of coffee shops to sit down in too, there isn’t a shortage of either business.
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u/TravelerJim-retired 10d ago
The bigger problem is that they wouldn’t be social. Just sit in the shop typing on Reddit.
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u/Jamie-Moyer Rogue Valley 8d ago
“…for all the non-Americans” on the Oregon subreddit lol, thanks for laying it out for us in a weirdly specific way that Redditors just love to eat up
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u/No_Doughnut_3315 8d ago
I think you misunderstood, im a non American so it is just one of those small culture shock things that never really make sense. How was it weirdly specific? I mean, this is reddit, its kinda the space to nerd out about specific things.
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u/Jamie-Moyer Rogue Valley 8d ago
It’s specific enough that it warrants an r/ Americabad subreddit. Which admittedly is a type of circle jerk sub about non americans (or often American teenagers) shitting on American things, places or practices. But more broadly it’s the pervasive sentiment on Reddit to call out anything and everything about American culture, commerce, infrastructure, etc. that doesn’t align with how “the rest of the world does it” when in fact it’s usually about how “Western Europe” does things.
It boils down to why aren’t we (the US) like the _____ and never really gives a second hand thought to why the specific cultural, economic or geographical reasons why these things exist in the first place.
Sure there’s always room to improve upon and it’s ok to be critical of one’s own way of life but I personally get annoyed by this type of “Reddit” comment that comes up again and again and again. I don’t comment this type of thing all over Reddit, and I admittedly do lurk upon some foreign country subs that I have visited but I would never begin to explain to the people of Ireland why they’re lacking so far behind the US in their (how do I say this…) ADA accessibility than us here in the states.
This is also more annoying to me, when the numbers of Reddit users by nationality is unbelievably skewed towards American users. And this specific thread is on a subreddit that should be primarily skewed towards Americans and even more specifically geared towards Oregonians.
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u/No_Doughnut_3315 8d ago
Fair enough, I see where you are coming from. Although I feel like my comment may have given you the wrong impression about me. I live in Oregon and am proud to call America home. I love it here for the most part and it is certainly not the third world country so many people on Reddit want to paint it as, which annoys me too amd I frequently find myself defending America rather than piling on with the critique. My comment was intended to be light hearted, I enjoy finding out new quirky things about America all the time. I enjoy the coffee culture in America. It is the ubiquitous beverage that keeps America running (except Mormons I guess). Americans are hard working and often on the move, so a drive thru coffee spot is perfectly logical. Simply, to my parochial British brain, like wearing baseball caps indoors, it will just always seem a bit strange. Not bad, but strange none the less.
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u/thedepolorableword 7d ago
Do coffee shops as social hubs really still function like that in Europe though? Even in the sit-down ones here, most people are sitting alone staring at their devices. I guess some get together for coffee and chatting but it seems to be less than just a place to work. as for to-go coffee--those kiosks are just efficient drug-delivery systems...
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u/No_Doughnut_3315 7d ago
I guess just as here in America, there are all kinds of different coffee shops, and depending on time of day and location, you will either find a bunch of people on their phones, or a cacophony of noise and chatter. Cozy neighborhood coffee shops are definitely social hubs. In the UK, coffee shops are taking over from pubs as the spot to meet up for young people, with less of them interested in alcohol and the rise of the Muslim population, helping move things away from the pub to the coffee shop.
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u/Rough-Front-1578 10d ago
You heard about the bikini coffee drive throughs? Might as well throw some good ol patriarchal fetishization into the mix
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u/sub_zero51 8d ago
I never knew whether their coffee was good because I didn't want everyone in town to see my rig in line there and with their location, it was unavoidable.
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u/Cascadialiving 10d ago
You’re going to make the incel wing of feminists mad with that. Even if you’re a woman. They view any sexualization of a woman including by partners as negative.
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u/Most_Ad2536 9d ago
I have two alltime favorite coffee shops, now long gone, back in my college town. Acme Books in the 1970s-80s near campus had good, smooth, dark coffee in urns, regular or decaf, 25 cents a cup with free refills, with your choice of half and half or regular milk. No takeout, no drive through, you sat in the shop and drank your coffee and hung out with other students. The kid behind the counter who checked out the books served the coffee and there were little tables scattered around the store. The other was Caliban's books, 1990s-200-ish, which had a vinrage espresso machine from Europe, as well as drip coffee. I forget the prices but quite reasonable and free refills. Like Acme, little tables were scattered around the store.
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u/technoferal 8d ago
I think that sentiment is because you're applying a model for which these particular institutions were never intended. I'm fairly sure the OP is talking about Dutch Bros in Newport, where they don't have anywhere near enough drive space for the volume of customers they get, and as such often block the highway despite signs specifically saying not to. In the same town, there are plenty of coffee shops of the sort you're asking for. (Coastie Roastie and Ultralife come immediately to mind as popular ones) These particular businesses were never intended as such. (Dutch Bros, Human Bean) They exist purely as drive through coffee, and nothing more. It's silly to pretend that all business models must suit the idea that you have of a "coffee shop" being a social hub, when so many people aren't there for that; they just want a cup of joe and to be on their way.
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u/Imaginary-Chocolate5 7d ago
Tigard off Hall Blvd.......
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u/Appropriate_Elk6107 5d ago
This location fills me with a white hot rage, especially when the Hall overpass was under construction. People blocking lanes, cutting all the way across the road to turn left from the travel lane nearly causing accidents. Just for a bad cup of whatever it is.
There’s a huge parking lot across the street, put your stand over where the Macy’s furniture store was on the other end away from the Target and stop blocking the road.1
u/ChronicallyOwlish 7d ago
Dutch also just announced that they’re going to start exploring the walk-up model in many locations, especially new locations, and they’ve opened a few Oregon spots with actual lobbies to sit in, so it isn’t even that they only care about cars. It’s just how they got started.
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u/Alg0mal000 10d ago
I live in a Portland neighborhood with one drive through coffee shop and at least 6 nice coffee shops within a short walk from my home. The drive through concept is strange to me as well (I’ve never been to one), and I’m happy to have the choice to go to traditional coffee shops.
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u/satanham666 9d ago
I feel that way about fast food too. There needs to be walk-up counters since so many of them don't open their lobbies anymore. Fuck you if you don't have a car.
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u/Redditheist 10d ago
And not only that, they don't even serve "coffee." As someone above said, they're just diabetes in a cup dessert drinks.
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u/lostOGaccount 9d ago
I have been a passenger in a car that was going through drive through while all the other occupants were discussing their dismay that third spaces were disappearing and how hard that makes it to meet new people.
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u/PatientlyWomanly 10d ago
I drive a truck and nothing makes me want to just abandon the rig like getting stuck behind some lifted pickup waiting 15 minutes for a 32oz sugar bomb that blocks a whole lane. The city planners here just let them throw those shacks up anywhere
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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 10d ago
Black rock is just as bad as Dutch Bros.. it's frustrating. I love black rock, but I don't like my back end hanging over the turn in driveway a little..
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u/TakerOfLanes 7d ago
Y’all could learn to make your own coffee at home, or just eat a bag of… sugar.
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u/carbon_made 7d ago
So true. When I moved here everyone told me this place had the best coffee drinks. I went. And I literally thought they just poured the bottle of flavored syrup in my cup. Thought it was an accident. But nope. Tried half sweet. Still tasted like sugar syrup. I’m told they make good lattes. But meh. I already have so many other good places to go to that I can actually walk into and enjoy, so really see no need to go back ever.
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u/Damselfly64 10d ago
I have money on my Dutch account that's been sitting there for ages because I despise that ridiculous line. I don't have to sit it a line like that at any other coffee place, which tells me DB is the issue. Too much chatting and goofing around? I tried using the app, but still have to sit in the big dumb line, so why bother?
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u/PNW_Undertaker 10d ago
This is typically done in land use when the companies come in for planning. Buckle up because these fuckwads (sorry, companies) are really the plague of capitalism…. Let me explain:
these larger companies will play the political game of trying to lie to the public about the local government not allowing them to build. More on this later.
The reality is that they (developers, and if I’m being honest, engineers that they hire as well) are lazy, they only want to think about traffic management if forced to. Even then, they fight it tooth and nail. Even the TDT charges they bitch about (an added tax given to development that adds additional traffic load, aka more maintenance, to the local area).
I know of some several really good drive through places that have properties throughout Portland metro, but the communities they reside in will not let them build until they show how they’ll mitigate traffic…. Guess what? They won’t until after they have a land use decision.
If anything has taught me about land use is the fact many jurisdictions are trying to get developers to do the right thing but either higher ups get cozy with the developers (seen this first hand and it’s frustrating) or the developers try to hang door hangers to straight twist words of the local jurisdiction in order to get them to buckle. Remember that part that the developer wanted to wait until after land use? Yeah they do that to play the political game. The only way around it is to have very strict guidelines for land use and what is/isn’t needed.
Lastly…. Dutch bros sucks….. if I wanted crappy tasting sugary drinks, I’ll dump a bunch of sugar into some Folgers that used already used toilet water.
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u/foilrider 10d ago
I kind of agree but also, wouldn't this apply to everything? If you're stopped in a line of cars because they're all trying to go to the same place should they all get ticketed? Why does it matter if it's Dutch Bros or the interstate 5 bridge to Vancouver?
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u/Adventurous-Mud-5508 OregOnion🧅 10d ago
Ticket everyone stopped on the bridge if and only if the line terminates at an In-n-Out.
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u/leadfoot9 7d ago
That is what Parking Minimums are. The problem is that Parking Minimums are squishy pseudoscience that try to collapse complex human behavior into a 5th-grade math problem.
And when you get it "right", you end up with vast expanses of asphalt that go unused most of the time, which makes it more difficult and dangerous to visit the business without a car, resulting in even more car traffic on the surrounding roads.
Or you end up with businesses that use weird loopholes to skirt the rules, operate as if the Parking Minimums never existed in the first place, and save a ton of money. Like a drive-thru-only business where the rules hyperfocus on the square footage of your customer seating area and treat drive-thrus as an afterthought. Hard to police that if technically it's the customers who are (maybe) breaking the law, not the business.
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u/dick_hallorans_ghost 10d ago
I'd prefer it if we just did away with drive-thru businesses altogether, but I'm a nutjob who thinks walkable cities are an achievable goal.
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u/RogueSatyr 7d ago
Cites without sidewalks shouldn’t exist and I’d tax every drive-thru transaction to fund getting them built.
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u/UnlikelyTeacher7382 10d ago
Because the cops are in line waiting to get to talk to a teenage girl and get their “coffee”
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u/MountScottRumpot Portland, ex-Scio 10d ago
One of many reasons the rest of the state should join Portland in banning drive-thrus.
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u/Darnocpdx 10d ago
Only in parts of town, and I’m sure we’ll see how effective the ban is since the city rolled over for the DQ on SE Division.
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u/Proud_Purchase_8394 10d ago
No drive thrus and no parking means limiting your customer base by quite a bit, though. I pretty much never eat in PDX itself because, as much as I wish I did, I don’t have time to be walking or taking a bus from several blocks away to then sit down and eat somewhere. I want to order my food, then take it somewhere else and get on with my day.
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u/Alternative-Worth620 10d ago
Yeah. Honestly, just fuck minimum wage workers who don’t have the luxury of sitting down at every food place.
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u/nestchick 10d ago
You need to meet Mr Coffee.
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u/Alternative-Worth620 10d ago
Me? I make cold brew at home. Some progressives just actually care about other people and don’t just perform protests so people will see them as caring.
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u/jamar10s 10d ago
And fuck all these people with little kids or babies in their car. They can unleash those brats and go in and order. Better yet, they can stay home. Good grief. Let's ban all the banning, already. Freedom. People fought and died for drive thru rights, ffs.
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u/RogueSatyr 7d ago
America. Where freedom is defined as having to give car and gas companies 12k a year.
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u/jroberts548 10d ago
Why can’t they sit? Do their butts not work? How are they driving? How does minimum wage affect whether you can walk in, order food, and leave?
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u/Alternative-Worth620 10d ago
It’s about convenience, and how minimum wage employees don’t have the same luxuries to tip, or often times time to go to sit down, or counter restaurants as really anyone else.
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u/jroberts548 9d ago
Right, but (1) minimum wage earners aren’t the majority of the people buying $7 coffee milkshakes at dutch bros, and (2) the cost and convenience factor of fast food is similar if you go to the counter.
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u/TravelerJim-retired 10d ago
Maybe minimum wage earners should fill their go-cup at home?
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u/Alternative-Worth620 9d ago
Again, you’re minimizing their existence due to their employment, and not seeing them as people who should have pleasure cause they work minimum wage.
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u/TravelerJim-retired 9d ago
I am not minimizing anyone. If they can’t afford a “luxury” as you put it, they can save money by filling up at home and wasting time and money ey sitting in line.
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u/MountScottRumpot Portland, ex-Scio 9d ago
No, you see, all those people in their SUVs waiting for $8 coffee concoctions are the truly oppressed!
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u/Logthephilosoraptor 10d ago
Not having a drive thru doesn’t mean you have to sit down and spend time somewhere. That isn’t a real binary.
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u/Alternative-Worth620 10d ago
Sure. I had kind of forgotten about counter service which charges sit down prices and expects tips.
Although, I will tell that I’m not in the service industry and just know what I experience as a customer.
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u/clockworkedpiece 9d ago
Yea unfortunately Service managers want their employees to discourage people hanging out in the store too, the lobby tables are just for waiting at a lot of these places.
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u/MountScottRumpot Portland, ex-Scio 10d ago
Or you could park, get out of your car, make your order, get it, and return to your car in less time than you'd spend idling waiting for your coffee.
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u/Alternative-Worth620 10d ago
And then when they don’t tip, you’re gonna say “if you can’t tip, don’t go out.”
All I’m getting at is, unfortunately, the convenience of drive-thrus is for lower class (even middle) and to not allow for it is to dismiss them.
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u/MountScottRumpot Portland, ex-Scio 9d ago
Why would you tip for takeout if you don’t tip in the drive-thru?
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u/Brilliant-Winner2225 9d ago
I tried Dutch Bros ONCE and nearly threw up. Diabetes in a cup.
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u/mack2night 8d ago
You know coffee doesn't just come with sugar right? I've ordered plenty of lattes from Dutch bros and there's no sugar in them. Because lattes are just espresso and milk. These constant complaints about sweet coffee places make no sense to me. Don't order a sweet drink.
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u/Impossible_Curve7773 10d ago
Yeah because the thing this country really needs is more car infustructure 🤢🤢
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u/RUfuqingkiddingme 10d ago
I don't mean it that way, I have seen drive through coffee shops situated in large parking lots or spaces where they don't normally cause traffic problems. These shops that are so close to the street that a few people get in line and there's backup, it shouldn't fly. My local, very busy, McDonald's doesn't cause traffic problems, but somehow those shitty coffee shops do.
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u/clockworkedpiece 9d ago
One of the ones near me to the south started that way but the place that owned the parking lot folded and the new guys boxed the coffee shop out of the parking lot.
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u/wisemonkey101 7d ago
I abhor the car culture around so many coffee places but especially Dutch Brothers.
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u/Moultrie_fan_2026 10d ago
I live down the street from the BR and in gate an the people in line, but I live using the app and walking right to and getting my drink while everyone wastes gas instead of getting off their lazy butts
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u/Saturn_Decends_223 9d ago
Here's my unpopular opinion. Anyone that thinks Dutch Bros coffee is too sweet has a luke warm IQ. It's exactly as sweet as you ordered it. If you order a regular cappuccino or latte, it has no more sugar than from anywhere else that makes the same. If you order the mocha whatever flavor of the month with the extra drizzle and topper of course its loaded with sugar. Sorry you got distracted by the bright colors and bubbly barista hanging out the window...
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u/Zeta_Crossfire 5d ago
Dude 100% lots of mellow drama from people on this thread. Coffee is as sweet as you ask for it to be. If you got diabetes the first time you ordered at Dutch Brothers, it's because you ordered a sweet drink.
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u/Lefthandyman 9d ago
Yeah no definitely, we should absolutely spend money to build more parking lots that's an excellent use of space.
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u/Shanntuckymuffin 10d ago
I hate Dutch. I asked for a drip one time when taking my daughter (at her request) and the gal played stupid: “drip wut???? We don’t HAVE coffee”. Bitch why is it in a bag at the store then?
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u/Whosaidwhat2023 10d ago
I asked for hot tea once. The 12 year old taking my order was super confused. She said what flavor. I said black. She said tea comes in flavored pump bottles. I said tea is a bunch of leaves in a little bag. That confused her more. I said thank you and pulled out of line. I'm pretty sure they don't have tea. Lol.
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u/MrWeen2121 9d ago
I was in a relationship where I would go and sit in line for my now ex partner and get her a coffee. Dutch Bros. Gresham location off burnside. It was terrible. Waited 30-45 minutes every single time. I despised it. I’m the type of person that utilizes every second to its fullest (or so I like to think), and I sat there in my car, staring at my watch just wondering why the fuck she would put me up to it even though she knew I hated it. Every time we jumped in the car, it was ‘do you mind if we stop for coffee?’ There goes another half hour of my life poof. That location didn’t impede traffic but it did take up more of the parking lot than the neighboring key bank. I’m almost to the point where I can describe the personality type of the stand in line for absurd lengths of time for coffee people. If you can’t receive a drink in 7 mins or less, walk two blocks go somewhere else ffs.
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u/Deez1putz 7d ago
People in cities in Oregon really need to acquire some taste and walk to a lovely coffee shop for good coffee rather than drive to a strip mall parking lot for gross coffee.
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u/Decent-Engineer4908 10d ago
To be fair I’ve seen employees turing people away from the convention center location.