Apr. 15—CHEYENNE — A Dutch Bros Coffee shop is is expected to open in Cheyenne this summer on Pershing Boulevard after plans for a location on Dell Range Boulevard fell through in 2022.

The new coffee shop will be the first in Wyoming for the Oregon-based company, which has more than 800 shops across 17 states.

This will be franchisee Nate Frary's ninth Dutch Bros in the northern Colorado and southern Wyoming market. He runs the Colorado stores with his wife, Krisanna McNew, with locations in Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor and Greeley. The Cheyenne location will be at3715 E. Pershing Blvd.

Slated to open in mid-June, the 900-square-foot building will serve customers through drive-through lanes or a walk-up window. It will not have indoor seating.

"Cheyenne is kind of the perfect spot for us to bring the brand," Frary said.

He said that they've been working toward getting a Cheyenne location for around four years, and that he had to keep working toward it even after the first deal fell through.

"We just had to reset. We found this location on Pershing, and it's the perfect place for us to come and plant the Dutch Bros flag in Cheyenne," he said. "Hopefully it's the first of multiple locations that we can do."

Although there are no current plans in the works to establish more locations, Frary said he hopes to have multiple in Cheyenne and potentially expand to Laramie, as well.

When he started operating his first location in eastern Washington 17 years ago, Frary didn't have any prior business experience. In 2016, he sold the four locations he had opened in Washington to expand to the northern Colorado market.

He and McNew grew up in southern Oregon, where Dutch Bros is headquartered, and got involved with the company in an era of rapid expansion, before it had 200 stores.

"I cold-called [Dutch Bros] and met up with them a few times," Frary said. "Then came the fun part of realizing I didn't have any business background, didn't have any experience and no money. So, we spent the next five years trying to save up enough money to get into our first franchise. And so that was, kind of, a long haul and being told no by every bank we talked to you because we didn't have experience. Then, it took us two more years to find somebody to help develop our first location in eastern Washington. So, it's been almost actually a 24-year journey to get here."

He isn't involved in the day-to-day operations as much anymore, and works more on the visionary and development side of running the shops.

Frary said his Dutch Bros locations are set apart from some competitors due to their small and efficient drive-through system and customer experience.

"For us, our unique catch is, really, the customer experience that we offer is very different and really stands out compared to what most people will consider competition. There's a lot of people, and a lot of people that drink coffee, and everybody has their preference. But we really just focus on creating an exceptional customer experience," he said.

Dutch Bros will hold a hiring event this Saturday at Laramie County Community College to find employees for the new location.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.