Dutch Bros accelerates national store expansion

Dutch Bros has more than doubled its store count to more than 1,000 units coast-to-coast since the chain’s IPO in 2021 and aims to double it again in just three years from now by 2029.

The chain is better known in the Southwest, where for the past 25 years it had been expanding before the company catapulted from a regional chain to a national coffee and fancy beverage provider with stores in almost half of the U.S. states on its way to achieving a national presence.

So, if you lease or operate shopping centers only in the Northeast, you may not be familiar with the brand other than hear about the chain’s recent expansion plans at ICSC deal making events. For those of you, here’s your lesson:

Dutch Bros Coffee Inc.—pronounced “bros,” not “brothers”—is a big chain of tiny drive-thru huts manned by relentlessly cheerful and chatty teenagers who serve a menu of $7 candy-colored coffee concoctions, energy drinks and lemonades.

Dutch Bros historically was concentrated in the West and South/Midwest, but has begun opening new stores or has disclosed plans to open in 2026 in key new markets in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana on its way to becoming a true national chain.

Started in Oregon by two brothers of Dutch descent, the company moved its headquarters to Tempe, Arizona, in June 2025. Christine Barone, a former senior vice president at Starbucks Corp., came on board as CEO in 2023, while one of the co-founders, Travis Boersma, directs strategy and serves as executive chairman. His co-founding much older brother, Dane, who operated a Dairy Queen franchise in the 1970s died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2009.

The chain’s leasing strategy seeks suburban locations along major transit routes, just as other fast-food and coffee retailers, but its buildings—all drive-thru locations—occupy less than 1,000 square feet and can be built out in four months, as little as half the time it takes to build a typical dine-in café or fast-food restaurant.

The drive-thrus are instantly recognizable, little bunkers of blue corrugated metal and gray brick.

Dutch Bros initially grew through franchising but no longer franchises; since 2017 every new shop has been company-owned. As the chain ramps up growth eastward, it opened roughly three stores per week in 2025 and will have to double that pace to reach its goal of having 2,029 stores by the end of 2029.

According to past analysts’s calls, the company sees a path to having as many as 7,000 units operating from coast to coast.

Read more: Dutch Bros Is Out-Starbucksing Rivals With the Sugariest Drinks (Bloomberg Businessweek)