Lake Charles Welcomes Dutch Bros Coffee

By: reddproperties.com | June 17, 2025

For Lake Charles locals, if driving near the commercial strip (near the Kroger shopping center with Anytime Fitness, Starbucks, Wing Stop), you will see new construction of a first for the State of Louisiana – our first Dutch Bros Coffee. 

Located at 1775 Country Club Road (on the Red River Bank side of the street, across from Trinity Baptist Church), the coffee shop is scheduled to open by late 2025. The Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission approved a request for a major conditional use permit to construct the drive thru coffee shop during its Dec. 9, 2024 meeting, reported The Advocate newspaper. 

We are not certain, but suspect the conditional use permit was because of the drive thru operation that Dutch Bros prefers — and usually with operating windows on two sides of its stores. The somewhat unique drive thru is spurred by the variety of drinks the chain makes, yet also because Dutch Bros seems to attract a huge following everywhere they open. Literally, there could be 20+ cars in line for a pick up at once! 

The menu will consist of specialty coffees (trust, you have never heard of some of these brews), smoothies, teas, energy drinks and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffees. In other words, not your grandfather’s coffee shop. 

This is a good thing for our local economy, and helps get Lake Charles on the map with other national chain operators. Not that we don’t love our local restaurants and boutique shops – we do. But being in the real estate business, we remain unapologetic for positive growth and national recognition. 

The company has been on an intentional growth plan for several years now and has over 1,000 locations nationwide. The Advocate reported that Dutch Bros is looking at locations in Baton Rouge near LSU and also in Lafayette. This is a typical play by chain operators – to open several locations in a given region. The enlarged scale provides operating efficiencies with product logistics and distribution and it makes stores like these profitable. 

We’ll close this post with a shameless plug. Hey, it’s our website! We are listing a 1-acre, unimproved lot on the same side of the street of the future Dutch Bros Coffee, and almost next door. It has mixed-use zoning and is within city limits; and it’s one of the best development sites in Lake Charles for a thriving retail operator. Or something else! It’s the lot adjacent to 1601 Country Club Road. Contact us for more information.