1st Drive-Thru Starbucks In DC Opens In Skyland Town Center

WASHINGTON, DC — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser joined community members and company officials Friday morning in Ward 7 to celebrate the opening of Washington, D.C.’s first drive-thru Starbucks.

The new Starbucks, in the Skyland Town Center development in Southeast D.C., also will have a walk-up window, so customers do not need to go inside the store to get their coffee and specialty drinks. The new store is only the second Starbucks east of the Anacostia River in the District of Columbia.

In her remarks, Bowser noted that the city pledged new restaurants and grocery stores would be moving into the area, where the opening of new grocery stores and restaurants is a rarity compared to other parts of D.C. and suburban Maryland. A Roaming Rooster restaurant opened on Good Hope Road SE in the Skyland neighborhood last weekend.

Last month, a celebration was held for the groundbreaking of a new Lidl food market in the Skyland Town Center. The new Lidl is scheduled to open by late 2022.

"And what town center would be complete without coffee," Bowser said. "And we know D.C. likes Starbucks."

Bowser said the new Starbucks will create 25 new jobs.

"We're going to be the kind of store that communes and brings people together around coffee and for the greater human spirit to be nurtured," Wayne Martin, senior manager of government and community affairs for Starbucks, said at the grand opening celebration.

Joseph Gibbs, store development manager for Starbucks, said safety has become a key consideration for stores, including Starbucks, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Safety, along with convenience, is why the company decided to build both the drive-thru and the walk-up window at the Skyland Starbucks, he said.

Along with indoor seating, the store also has a covered outdoor patio for customers.

This article originally appeared on the Washington DC Patch