Maybe it's because I don't have a very high opinion of Starbucks, but there's a surprising number of those little drive-thru coffee hut things (not sure what you call them) that beat the pants off of Starbucks. Just finished up a road trip the other day that took me through the "empty bits out west" (Wyoming, Montana, Nevada), and I hit up at least 3 of them.

Love the espresso shacks! In addition to having very proper coffee, they are also great sources of local information if you need it. I am always astonished at how well-distributed and ubiquitous they are even in the very rural West. Every country road far off the beaten path with any sort of local traffic at all seems to have (at least) one. It is a neat bit of rural West culture.

I've always wondered about the economics of espresso shacks. Obviously the fixed costs are very low, a literal shack and bit of nigh worthless rural land. Each one appears to be a unique and creative local business with no underlying corporate chain tying them all together but the sheer pervasiveness of them makes me wonder if there is a well-oiled corporate business model underneath it all.

I spend a lot of time in Montana, and I guess I took them for granted! Never realized they were regional.

I'm guessing their popularity has grown a bit. I noticed a chain of them when I was in Kansas City a few years ago.

Huh, I’ve never heard of espresso shacks. They’re only on the West coast? Do you have a photo of one?

They originated in the rural Pacific Northwest, because coffee culture isn't just in the city there, but they've spread across the northern half of the Mountain West. This is a very regional bit of Americana, most Americans aren't familiar with it unless they've driven through the backwaters of that part of the country. Sometimes they are truly out in the middle of nowhere on county roads in the wilderness and such, no other buildings for miles, the novelty of which delights people the first time they see it. Small rural towns usually have multiple espresso shacks.

The coffee is legitimately very good in my experience. It is common in that part of the US to drink coffee with neither milk nor sugar.

Here is nice blog about them with a ton of pictures:

https://roadslesstraveled.us/coffee-kiosks-of-the-west/

This is so interesting. I live in Beaverton, OR, and grew up and often visit Eastern Washington. These coffee shacks are everywhere. I had no idea they were a regional thing. I always assumed they were a national thing since I see them everywhere I visit for the most part. Wild.

Google does: https://www.google.com/search?q=espresso+shacks&tbm=isch

Looks like there's a lot of crossover with the "bikini barista" concept, which I could picture being off-putting to some. I guess that's another plus for a national chain— your morning coffee isn't going to turn out to be something embarrassing to have to explain to the kids in the back seat.

The Pacific Northwest espresso shacks have no relationship to "bikini barista" places. Or at least, I've never seen a bikini in one anywhere. These are rural places staffed by locals for the locals, often teenagers.

The bikini ones are all over the PNW though. (As are regular ones)

I think it's really the northwest. Oregon has em, but driving from the bay area to LA I never saw one in rural parts of central california. They might exist though.

There are a couple in and around Modesto, but yeah they really start to become rare south of that (ignoring those weird bikini coffee shacks).

Problem is, if I'm low on decision making energy or risk tolerance I will prefer a near-guaranteed acceptable solution over a probably good but potentially awful one.

I was put off of these because, the first time I saw them (in Washington state), they were advertised as “bikini” coffee shacks. I had a visceral reaction to this—it felt both creepy (What kind of person would work in such a place? What kind of person patronizes it?) and gross (non-zero probability of pubic hairs in the drink). I think strip clubs are problematic too, but they seem somehow more honest and less creepy because of their transparent purpose.

I’ve heard from others that these places have good coffee, but, perhaps unfairly, I am repulsed by them.