Rhett BrinkleyThe 4000 block of JFK Boulevard in North Little Rock will soon be a beehive of drive-thru coffee activity. On Monday, the former Regions Bank building on the northeast corner of the JFK and McCain intersection was demolished to make room for a new 7 Brew Coffee stand.
Soon, when traffic on McCain isn’t obscuring the view, commuters exiting the Starbucks drive-thru (4824 JFK Blvd.) will have a nice view of the new 7 Brew (4900 JFK Blvd.) right across the street, which is just a few blocks north of the Dark Side Coffee drive-thru stand located on the west side of the highway (4621 JFK Blvd.) in the North Park Mall parking lot that houses Hobby Lobby.
Here’s what the view looked like from the Starbucks drive-thru when I picked up a 6 p.m. cold brew I had no business drinking Monday evening.
Rhett Brinkley7 Brew originally opened in Rogers in 2017, and since the franchisee Brew Crew LLC of Fayetteville announced its expansion into Central Arkansas in the fall of 2022, the company has opened several stores. This year, 7 Brew has opened locations at 11100 N. Rodney Parham Road at the site of the former Shorty Small’s; 11418 W. Markham St., where TCBY once stood; 8023 Cantrell Road; 11921 Maumelle Blvd. in North Little Rock; 3212 E. Race Ave. in Searcy; and 918 W. Main St. in Cabot.
The franchise’s rapid growth can be attributed to pre-fabricated, modular structures that are delivered to the building sites. 7 Brew’s typically feature two-lane drive-thrus with a walk-up window. One of the criticisms of the Starbucks on JFK and McCain Boulevard is the design of its drive-thru, which isn’t easy to access if you’re coming from the McCain side and cars are backed up into the parking lot on the JFK side. Dark Side Coffee’s two-way drive-thru stand opened in April of 2020 and became a popular spot for commuters during the pandemic, in part because of its convenient accessibility in a huge parking lot.
Brandon Sebald, CEO of Brew Crew LLC, said in a May 2023 email to Arkansas Times that a 7 Brew in Benton is expected this year, and Brew Crew has plans for an additional JFK location further north in the first quarter of 2024.
According to 7 Brew’s website, there are currently 24 locations in Arkansas and more than 100 nationwide.
