Black Rock Coffee Bar is planning to open a new drive-thru shop inside a former KFC building at 12660 Poway Road, part of a broader push that will also bring the chain to 5335 Overland Avenue in Kearny Mesa and 1525 Palm Avenue in San Diego. The Oregon-born chain has quietly been building out its San Diego County presence, and these latest additions would push its local footprint even further into car-centric commercial corridors once dominated by fast-food giants.
The Poway plans surfaced through licensing records with the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality, which lists Black Rock Coffee Bar at the Poway Road address, according to whatnow.com. CommercialSearch lists a 2,500-square-foot retail space available at Poway Crossings, near the property, which previously housed a KFC restaurant before it closed. The property sits along a commercial corridor that carries an estimated 38,200 vehicles per day, according to Commercial Search. Black Rock has not added the Poway location to its online store directory, and no opening date has been announced for it.
Kearny Mesa Site
The Kearny Mesa location at 5335 Overland Avenue is further along, with Black Rock expecting to open there in October.
The Palm Avenue shop in San Diego was included in a September 4 announcement from the company and is expected to open in November. The address was previously listed for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, per Grubhub.
A Chain Built on Recycled Drive-Thrus
Black Rock currently operates one location within the city of San Diego, at 2669 Garnet Avenue, along with additional stores in Escondido, Oceanside, and Vista. The pattern of repurposing old fast-food and bank buildings isn't new for the chain: in September 2025, Black Rock opened a second Vista location at 905 S Santa Fe Drive by converting a former Regents Bank branch into a sit-down cafe with a drive-thru, according to the Vista Press.
The company was founded in Beaverton, Oregon, in 2008 as a single 160-square-foot drive-thru stand and has since grown to more than 150 company-owned locations across multiple states. Its menu features coffee and espresso drinks, cold brew, teas, protein drinks, and customizable Fuel energy beverages, alongside food items like breakfast burritos, egg bites, sandwiches, bagels, muffins, and other baked goods.
Drive-Thru Coffee Is Eating Into Sit-Down Cafes
The expansion lines up with a national shift in how Americans buy their coffee. A record 59% of U.S. coffee purchases happened at drive-thrus as of October 10, 2025, up from 55% the year before, according to Intelligence Coffee, with nearly three-quarters of U.S. restaurant traffic now occurring off-premises. Energy drink offerings on drive-thru and coffee chain menus also grew by 186.8% over four years, now appearing on more than a quarter of segment menus, per research cited by the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Black Rock has built its operations around that shift, designing its drive-thru kitchens and barista workflows to target drink preparation and handoff within 90 seconds — a benchmark that matters for a chain competing for high-volume morning commute traffic rather than sit-down customers. As more of these old fast-food buildings along San Diego's commercial corridors get converted into coffee drive-thrus, it remains to be seen how many competing brands the same stretches of road can support.
