7 Brew Coffee (Westwood)
4702 West Main StreetIt’s here. I know people (ie my family) have been waiting for this for months.
Both 7 Brew locations in Kalamazoo are finally open.
My family has gone to the Gull Road location several times but the West Main location is actually closer to us. They’ve been waiting for that one to open.
This past Saturday was free t-shirt day. J and B were still in Boston for his figure skating competition so J texted me from the plane and asked if I would go get three large drinks and the t-shirts that came with them.
Ugh…sounds like an awful way to spend a Saturday to me but I did it. I told her to send me their drink order and I would do it.
The Westwood 7 Brew is near the intersection of West Main Street and Drake Road in Kalamazoo Township. It sits right next to Chick-Fil-A in a spot that was a gas station long before that corner became an intersection for popular fast food joints. The 7 Brew locations are all prefabs and they’re drive through only so they don’t need a very big footprint. The business is connected to both the Chick-Fil-A and the shopping plaza to the east where the Penn Station East Coast Subs is via driveways but on this way, neither was accessible due to the large crowds. There is a walk up window that was being used and people were just parking in front of the Penn Station and walking over so all traffic had to come in off West Main.
I knew that there was going to be a long line of cars likely spilling on to West Main so I took the long way around and came from the east so I could get in line without having to turn around. The line actually started all the way back at Picadilly Street. The good news is there is turn lane that appears just past the first entrance to Westwood Plaza so cars weren’t really blocking the travel lane. I know this sounds like a lot, but honestly, I’ve sat in McDonalds drive thru lanes longer than I sat in this one. It took less than ten minutes to get completely inside the drive thru on the 7 Brew property.
There are two drive thru lanes when you pull in to property. Both are very tight squeezes around the building. There is a sign that if you’re in a bigger vehicle, you need to be in the outside lane. There’s not much of a turning radius on the inside lane. The outside lane was actually moving a little faster so I was pointed to that side to get off the street.
The thing you will instantly notice as you pull in…there are no menus anywhere. You have to know what you’re ordering before you pull in or it is going to significantly slow things down. If you’re a fellow Gen-Xer or a young Millenial, you cannot just show up and decide what you’re going to order. You HAVE to make a plan before you get in the car. The orders taken by employees who walk through the drive thru lanes. They will constantly being telling you to pull forward as they’re taking your order. The woman in front of me….clearly a Gen-Xer, barely got her order in before getting all the way through to the pick up area. There were at least three cars behind her that got their orders before she got hers and we all had to wait in the drive thru lane until she got hers at least five minutes after we did. Make a plan and know what you’re going to order before leaving the house.
I put in an order for three large drinks so I could get three free t-shirts. None of those drinks were for me. The only other time I have been at a 7 Brew was when we stopped on our way to Nashville in Kokomo, IN to get drinks. I got a milkshake that day. I didn’t want a milkshake at 10 AM so I just did what I was told and got three drinks for everyone else. After putting the order in, a different person was walking around with t-shirts. She just asked how many large drinks I ordered and what size I needed. I told her, she handed me the shirts, then I went on to the pick up area.
The pick up area also has two lanes. There isn’t really a drive up window though. There will always be someone running drinks back and forth from the small kitchen area to stands outside where another employee gets them to the right car.
From the time I got in line near Picadilly Street until the time I pulled back out on the West Main to head home, it was about 20 minutes. Was it worth it to me? Yeah but only because it made my wife and kids happy.
So, what did they get? J and L both get the Pixie Stick Energy Drink with cream. The flavors in this one are almond, orange, and pomegranate. It really does taste just like a Pixie Stick. I actually would drink this one if I was getting a drink but I had a Pepsi sitting in the cup holder so no reason to get myself an energy drink.
B gets the Blue Lagoon Fizz. The flavors are lime, blue raspberry, and coconut. This one is fine too but not one I would order. He really likes it though. This drink actually lasted him like three days. He would drink a bit, put it back in the fridge then keep going back to it. I was surprised to find him still drinking it a few days later. He said the flavor held up despite being a little watered down by the time he got done with it.
The cost for the three large drinks was just under $25.
Do I get the 7 Brew hype? No. Not at all. Does that mean I should mock other people for getting excited about it? Absolutely not. It’s not my thing but that’s fine. If you like it, this is a great addition to Kalamazoo. The hype will eventually wear off and it will become just another drink place. That’s fine too. I’ll grab a shake from here every so often when J goes but it’s not the kind of place I will go on my own just to get a drink.
SW Michigan Dining 