![]() ![]() It’s a rite of passage for anyone in a Whataburger town to feast on a late-night breakfast of taquitos sometime after 2 am, but even at a more civilized hour, breakfast at Whataburger wows. It’s a creamy, caffeinated java that’s worth pairing with any breakfast item. And if you leave a Sonic without getting an iced coffee poured over its famed nugget ice, you’re making a huge mistake. Eat more than one and your dentist will find out and schedule a cavity filling. On the sweeter side of things, its Cinnabon Cinnasnacks are sugary dessert egg rolls best dipped into its refrigerated cream cheese frosting. The Bacon BREAKFAST TOASTER (their caps, not ours) fares better, as it’ll remind you of a grilled cheese sandwich with an egg that you’d make in your kitchen if you weren’t so lazy, or tired. Skip the SuperSONIC Breakfast Burrito, a jumble of ingredients (egg, sausage, jalapeño, onion, tots, tomato, cheddar) that don’t work well enough together to form a cohesive meal. But don’t order just anything off its breakfast menu. It’ll let you order Texas toast, burritos, and French toast sticks all darn day and night. ![]() Jim & Patty’s now has four Portland-area locations, while a Motor Moka location reopened last year in Vancouver.The drive-in chain doesn’t care if you show up at 11:01 am and want breakfast food, even though most fast food joints stopped serving it a half-hour ago. Launched with a cafe on Northeast Fremont Street in late 2002 and serving sour cream coffee cake and a few specialty drinks familiar to fans of the original Coffee People, Jim & Patty’s Coffee, brought the spirit back to life for the chain’s many fans. So when their noncompete clauses were up, the Roberts were ready to jump back in the coffee game. The Coffee People name mostly disappeared.Īfter a stint in seminary school and a brief sojourn to Texas, Jim and Patty Roberts returned to Portland and opened All Y’all’s BBQ on Northeast Broadway in 2001. Eventually, Coffee People was acquired by Starbucks, the company that had prompted their growth in the first place. The Portland company merged with Canada’s Second Cup in 1998 and then sold to Diedrich Coffee Inc., losing Jim and Patty along the way. But after a successful public offering and a major push into airports and other markets in the 1990s, Coffee People was losing money, fast. Meanwhile, Coffee People started to expand at a rapid pace, seeking to become the Burger King to Starbucks’ McDonald’s. Motor Moka’s success paved the way for Dutch Bros., another popular Oregon coffee company, as well as Starbucks’ many drive-through outlets. At its peak, 2,500 cars passed through the drive-thru daily. Roberts is credited with opening one of America’s first drive-thru coffee shops, Motor Moka, which debuted on Northeast Grand Avenue in 1990, where it attracted reporters from national magazines and TV news shows. “I was an English major,” Jim Roberts said by way of explanation in a 2006 story in The Oregonian, not an MBA.Īfter a pair of failed ventures in Portland and the Oregon coast, the couple returned to Portland in 1983 and opened the first Coffee People shop, imbuing the cafe with a little “post-hippie” Eugene vibe, including tie-dyed merch, chalk-drawn signs and a promise of “good coffee” and “no backtalk.”Īs The Oregonian’s Grant Butler wrote in 2016, in the days before Starbucks came to town, Coffee People was the place many Portlanders tried their first lattes, mochas and other espresso drinks. It was there that newlyweds Jim and Patty Roberts had their first taste of quality espresso – Folgers was the norm back then – and decided to dip their toe into selling pour-over coffees and fresh-baked baklava at Eugene’s Saturday Market. ![]() “The only thing that can make our loss feel lighter is his continued legacy and the love he left for everyone.”īorn in Cottage Grove to a logger-preacher father, Jim Roberts attended the University of Oregon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “There’s a hole in our hearts after yesterday’s passing of Jim Roberts,” the post reads. Jim Roberts, the co-founder of cult-favorite Portland coffee chain Coffee People credited with inventing the coffee drive-thru, has died, according to an Instagram post from Jim & Patty’s, Coffee People’s successor. ![]()
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