
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 54% of Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee every day. ” It’s hard to argue with that statement when you look at coffee drinking statistics. Dan says, “I think just about anywhere you go in the United States if you have a good location and you serve a good product for a reasonable price you’ll be successful. When I asked them why they thought that coffee stands are so popular in Alaska, they both acknowledged that the cold weather could be a significant reason, but it’s not as simple as that. Students from Effie Kokrane even make the short walk over and walk by the window to order their items. This location provides a lot of business during the day from students on their lunch break or between classes. For example, Mocha Dan’s has a stand on Geist Road that is right next to three high schools and the University. They also mentioned that location is one of the most important parts of starting a business. It’s not as simple as just pouring a cup of coffee.
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She says that she always thought it seemed like a good idea and regretted not starting one earlier, but after stopping for coffee at “Kurt and Kim’s” stand and being told that it was for sale, she decided to purchase it.īoth Dan and Liz said that the most difficult part of starting the business was learning how to make all of the specialty coffee drinks. There was a number of tourists that would remark to me that they have drive-thru’s down there, where you can just drive up and get coffee, and so I started getting the idea from these tourists.” Similarly, Liz from Cafe Cache got the idea years later after seeing numerous coffee stands pop up throughout town. He says, “In the summertime when people would come up from Seattle and Portland they would say ‘Good, we’ve got Espresso up here’ because down there, you know, Seattle is called the Espresso capital of the world. Dan had originally run a coffee and snack stand during the 1990’s inside of West Fred Meyer’s, which is one of the busiest stores in Fairbanks. Mocha Dan’s was the first drive-thru coffee stand in Alaska. I was able to interview Liz Gardner, who owns “Cafe Cache”, and Dan Meyer, the owner of “Mocha Dan’s.



They range from one person businesses with a single location, to small franchises that have multiple stands spread out around the city. The small coffee huts are fairly unique to Fairbanks and the pacific northwest. It seems like on just about every street corner in Fairbanks, Alaska, there is a drive-thru coffee stand serving customers breakfast sandwiches and specialty coffee items.
