Santa Fe's new coffee chain getting — and causing — heavy traffic

Aug 06, 2023

General Assignment Reporter

Maria Castillo took one look at the long line of cars waiting to turn into the parking lot of Dutch Bros. drive-thru coffee shop and decided she could wait another day or two for a cup of java.

“I saw the craziness, the lines blocking the street,” Castillo said of the sight that greeted her at the store Friday — the day the hot- and cold-drink franchise opened its first Santa Fe location, on Cerrillos Road.

Castillo came back Monday morning to order a regular coffee. Things were busy but not keep-your-head-on-a-swivel busy.

“Today is the first time it calmed down,” she said while standing outside the walk-up window.

“It is good coffee,” she said.

Apparently, many others agree — or at least, want to find out. Since the opening, vehicles in the southbound lanes of Cerrillos have had to negotiate the flow into and out of Dutch Bros., though regional manager Colton Sims said Santa Fe police officers have been “super cool” in helping keep cars moving.

The Dutch Bros. phenomenon — Santa Fe’s store makes No. 769 for the Grants Pass, Ore.-based company — has been seen in Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, Las Cruces and Albuquerque. Its Santa Fe location, at 2841 Cerrillos Road, can accommodate as many as 38 cars from the entrance of the parking lot to the pickup window at the back of the store.

It’s an assembly line — often a long one. But if you think the oven-like temps of Santa Fe’s summer would dissuade the curious from grabbing a cup, you’d be ... well, all wet.

Sims said it helps the company also offers some cold drinks, but he attributes its popularity to the motto: “We’ll make anything you want.”

And so it went Monday, with Santa Feans waiting in line to grab green teas and chocolate shakes, in addition to the predictable coffees, both iced and hot. Several people said they were ordering the Double Torture, described on the company’s website as an “extra double shot vanilla mocha” drink that sounds like it would keep you awake — or on a treadmill — for the rest of the year.

Michelle Johnson was waiting on one of those pick-me-up drinks Monday morning. She first came by Friday to get one but also saw a “line [of vehicles] down the street and cops. It was backed up.”

She made a strategic decision to wait until Saturday, but the “lines were still long” for the drive-thru. So that day, she parked in the lot and ordered at the walk-up window, waiting 15 minutes for a Campout Cold Brew, another sweet concoction designed to put you into overdrive at work.

The lines at the Dutch Bros. coffee shop on Cerrillos Road have been long since Friday’s madhouse opening. “I saw the craziness [Friday], the lines blocking the street,” said customer Maria Castillo. Castillo said things had calmed down when she returned to try the shop Monday.

It was so good she came back Monday for the Double Torture and waited just 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Megan Sandoval patiently waited in the drive-thru line. She’d already braved her first Dutch Bros. experience around 6 p.m. Friday, when the line of vehicles was spread out onto Cerrillos Road “because everyone was getting out of work.”

She wasn’t working Monday, so she figured she could wait an acceptable 15 minutes in a shorter line for a Rebel energy drink.

Sims said a lot of Santa Fe customers told his staff they had been driving south to Bernalillo because they like the product so much. Several people waiting in line backed his story, noting they had been making that trek on a regular basis.

Sims said the company has a policy of paying its employees 16 hours a month for volunteer time they put in at local community organizations. It’s one way to get to know the community, he said. They also visit nearby businesses to introduce themselves, invite their employees over for a drink and acknowledge “sometimes the lines are a little inconvenient.”

And sometimes the wait is a little longer because there’s more than one person in a vehicle, and the occupants end up ordering like “nine drinks,” he said.

But that only happens about once every five vehicles, he added.

From a business perspective, it’s not a bad problem to have. In the world of coffee (or anything you want), the more the merrier.

“We love everyone getting into a car and partying out with us,” Sims said with a smile as yet another vehicle joined the line.

General Assignment Reporter

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