A new 7 Brew drive-thru stand has already landed at 2206 N. Baltimore St. in Kirksville, and the neon-branded coffee chain is targeting a fall 2026 opening for the site. The company says the location will create 80 local jobs once it's up and running.
The address places the stand on the outparcel in front of Kirksville's Walmart Supercenter, according to LoopNet property records, putting the drive-thru squarely in one of the city's busiest retail corridors. News of the stand's arrival was first reported by the Kirksville Daily Express, which noted the company is now taking job applications at 7brewcrew.com ahead of the opening.
The Walmart location isn't a coincidence in the bigger picture of 7 Brew's business strategy. The chain expanded into retail shelves this month, launching canned ready-to-drink coffees in 4,400 Walmart stores and energy drinks in 1,100 Walmart stores nationwide, according to a Business Wire release. Positioning a physical stand directly in front of the same big-box retailer selling its bottled products creates an obvious commercial overlap for the brand.
How the Stand Went Up So Fast
7 Brew stands aren't built the way most drive-thrus are. The company uses prefabricated 510-square-foot modular units constructed off-site, trucked in on a semi, and lowered onto a prepared concrete slab by crane in a single day, according to reporting from Citizen Portal. That construction method is what allows the Kirksville building to already be sitting on-site months before the doors open.
Once running, the stands use dual drive-thru lanes staffed by tablet-equipped “Brewistas” who walk the car lines to take orders, a setup the same Citizen Portal report says can handle stacking queues of more than 30 vehicles during peak hours. Local online discussion has also raised questions about the tradeoffs of the modular approach, with some residents on Facebook noting that prefabricated buildings mean less work for local construction trades, and wondering how a national chain's arrival might affect Kirksville's existing coffee shops.
A Chain Growing Almost Everywhere at Once
7 Brew started as a single stand in Rogers, Arkansas, in 2017, and celebrated its 777th grand opening this past June, according to the brand's Wikipedia page. The company now operates more than 800 stands nationwide, per the Kirksville Daily Express report, and individual stands average roughly $2 million in annual sales despite having no indoor seating.
That growth has been fueled in part by outside capital. Blackstone Growth made a growth equity investment in the chain in February 2024 to help fund its multi-state expansion, according to a Blackstone announcement. Technomic data cited by Nation's Restaurant News ranked 7 Brew the nation's fastest-growing restaurant concept in 2024 after systemwide sales jumped 162% year-over-year to $502 million across 321 locations.
Missouri's Home-Field Advantage
Missouri-based Brew Crew LLC, founded in Springfield in 2021, operates as 7 Brew's first and largest franchise group, running more than 60 stands across five states including Missouri, according to the company's own careers page. The Kirksville stand's menu will lean on the chain's original seven signature drinks — the Blondie, Brunette, Smooth 7, Sweet & Salty, Cinnamon Roll, German Chocolate and White Chocolate Mocha — which gave the brand its name back in 2017, though the current lineup has grown to more than 20,000 possible drink combinations.
For now, Kirksville's stand remains a building without a business inside — a modular shell waiting on its fall debut. The company says applications for the 80 promised jobs are already open at 7brewcrew.com, giving job seekers a head start before the drive-thru lanes open to customers.
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