A new drive-thru coffee stand opened its doors on Mount Vernon's east side Monday, bringing the fast-growing 7 Brew chain to 195 Eastwood Drive with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a round of charitable giving. Staff at the new location marked the occasion by donating $2,000 split between the Knox County Dog Shelter and the Marion County Humane Society.
The opening was reported by Your Ohio News, which detailed the ribbon-cutting at the Eastwood Drive site and confirmed the stand's hours: 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. The Mount Vernon location is run by Aubrey Hughes and her crew, with Derek Stevens serving as director of operations for northeast Ohio and Lauren Hartley as regional leader, according to the outlet.
Stevens said the community had welcomed the team, and that training sessions and treat deliveries leading up to the opening had already generated excitement, per the same report. Before opening day, the project had been in the works for months. Back in August, knoxpages.com reported that the coffee shop would include two lanes of customer drive-thru traffic and would sit on parcels at the site of a former gas station.
A Rapidly Expanding Ohio Footprint
Mount Vernon's new stand is part of a much bigger push across the state. Stevens' group already operates 35 stands around Ohio, and plans call for additional locations in Alliance, Strongsville, Mentor, Cincinnati, Wilmington and Hamilton before the end of the year, Your Ohio News reported. A stand in Kent is expected to open the following week.
That growth tracks with national numbers. Ohio ranks third in the country for 7 Brew locations with 56 stands, trailing only Florida's 59 and Texas's 128, according to WDTN. The chain, founded in northwest Arkansas in 2017, opened its first Ohio stand in Massillon in 2023 before spreading to dozens of communities statewide.
WDTN also reported that a 7 Brew stand at 4211 Linden Ave. in Riverside is set for an official opening in early November, with the Dayton Chamber of Commerce announcing a ribbon-cutting for Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Elsewhere in the Dayton region, the Dayton Business Journal reported that 7 Brew had opened a stand in Fairborn, with a second Dayton-area location reportedly in the works.
Statewide Openings Keep Coming
The scale of 7 Brew's rollout became clear in late September, when USA Today reported the company was planning more than 50 new location openings across 31 states in October alone, including stops in Austintown and Powell, Ohio, both scheduled for Oct. 12. The outlet also noted the chain had rolled out a limited-time, Halloween-themed drink lineup called Booost Your Brew.
Other recent Ohio openings have drawn crowds of their own. In Trumbull County, WKBN reported that a new stand on State Route 46 in Howland held a ribbon-cutting grand opening after hiring about 70 people to staff it. WKBN also reported that Austintown's 7 Brew held a soft opening before welcoming the public the following Monday, calling it the Valley's third location, with a fourth planned for Hermitage later that month.
What's Next for the Mount Vernon Stand
Back in Mount Vernon, the new stand is leaning into 7 Brew's signature promotions to build its local following. The chain offers drinks across seven categories — coffees, energy drinks, fizz sodas, teas, lemonades, smoothies and shakes — with a menu that allows for more than 20,000 possible flavor combinations, according to Your Ohio News. On the seventh of every month, the chain holds a Jackpot Day, giving customers a surprise with any purchase between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Mount Vernon customers won't have to wait long for the next promotion. The location will hold a Swag Day on Nov. 14, when customers who buy a large drink can receive a free T-shirt, per the outlet's report. A construction report from knoxpages.com had earlier indicated, according to Matt Gagliano, that the Mount Vernon stand would be 7 Brew's last new establishment opened in 2026 — a notable bookend given how many other Ohio communities have welcomed the chain this fall.
