Mebane’s planning board gave its imprimatur of support to a proposed rezoning of a small portion of a parcel off Wilson Road, across from the Walmart shopping center, for a new drive-thru coffee shop, Seven Brew.
Seven Brew is the latest entrant into an apparently growing phenomenon of companies challenging Starbucks’ dominance in providing coffee to go.
Unlike Starbucks or certain other brands, however, Seven Brew is exclusively a drive-thru operation. It will be located on a slice of land of.69 acres on Wilson Road that runs behind Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s and in front of Tractor Supply. In Graham, a Scooter’s Coffee, another drive-thru only coffee shop, opened this week off South Main Street at Rogers Road.
The 535-square-foot building will have two drive-thru lines.
There are about two dozen Seven Brew coffee locations across North Carolina, about 800 nationally; this is the first one in Alamance County.
Some planning board members alluded to the desire to open Wilson Road through to the land now being cleared for Creekside Village, an almost 38-acre mixed-use project along Mebane Oaks Road and the corner with Old Hillsborough Road.
Previous discussions from the Tractor Supply developer several years ago with the owner, Roger Shields, failed to produce any agreement on opening the road. Shields’ property is the one now under consideration for the Seven Brew location.
Hours of operation are expected to be approximately 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 or 11:00 p.m.
The Mebane city council will consider the rezoning request at its next meeting, now scheduled for October 20.
