New Dutch Bros. opens Monday on West Shaw, sells $1 drinks for charity

Update, April 28: Dutch Bros. raised $5,544 for Valley Children’s Healthcare by selling $1 drinks on its opening day.

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The fourth Dutch Bros. in Fresno will open Monday – and this one is different.

It’s the coffee joint’s first espresso bar with indoor seating and food –including locally made cronut holes.

The new Dutch Bros. is at 1768 W. Shaw Ave. near West Avenue in a remodeled Wienerschnitzel.

On Monday, April 25, starting at 5 a.m., the new location will be selling $1 16-ounce drinks with all the money going to Valley Children’s Hospital. The deal is on for 24 hours via the drive-thru and inside until 10 p.m.

Typically, Dutch Bros. locations don’t have indoor seating, but this one can seat about 30 people inside and another 10 to 15 on the patio.

The drinks are the same, from straight coffee to the blended drinks like the chocolate macadamia nut “Annihilator.” Also the same are the bubbly personalities of the employees and the “energetic party atmosphere” typical at Dutch Bros, says franchisee Brent Wilson.

“The reason we call it an espresso bar is that people are able to come up and get a closer interaction with us,” he says. “They get to get a lot closer to us and can watch the magic happen.”

Don’t be surprised if an employee pulls up a chair to chat.

This Dutch Bros. will carry pastries from Clovis-based Firehouse Cookies. That includes cinnamon cream cheese coffee cake, blueberry scones, chocolate croissants, peanut butter chocolate bars and cronut holes. Cronuts are a cross between a croissant and doughnut and cronut holes are the smaller versions sold in a six pack.

Wilson is sure they’re going to be the No. 1 seller even though they haven’t officially started selling them.

“They are amazing,” Wilson said.

The new location’s drive-thru will be open 24 hours and the dining room from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The area will see a lot more Dutch Bros. opening in the near future – four, to be exact. Wilson declined to say where they would open.

In addition, the Dutch Bros. at Bullard and West avenues will move across the street to the southeast corner in the same center as the Manhattan Steakhouse & Bar. The new digs won’t have indoor seating, but will have three times the equipment and more power that will allow it to speed up lines going through the drive-thru.

Construction should start in a few weeks and finish by mid summer.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:43 PM with the headline "New Dutch Bros. opens Monday on West Shaw, sells $1 drinks for charity."