New Scooter’s Coffee almost ready to open

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

There should be another source of caffeine in town to fuel Christmas shopping sprees with the planned opening of the new Scooter’s Coffee in Charles City next month.

Robb Steffes, one of the owners of the new business, said he had just spent that last couple of days in Charles City and the business is getting geared up to open Friday, Dec. 10.

“We’re getting close. We are having a few supply chain issues which are delaying opening a week or so,” he said.

“We had trouble just getting our light package. There’s no interior or exterior lights right now, but we just received confirmation they’re shipping today, so we should have them early next week,” Steffes told the Press on Wednesday.

Steffes is the co-owner of Blu Water Brew of Arnolds Park, which owns four other Scooter’s Coffees in Iowa, two in Minnesota, and plans to open seven more including the one in Charles City.

The drive-through coffee kiosk, located on the corner of Gilbert and Freeman streets, will be open 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, he said. The stores are open every day except Christmas.

Steffes said they have hired a local manager, Derrick Olmstead, and most of the required staff — 12 to 13 people.

“This is the first time I’ve really spent significant time in Charles City,” Steffes said. “I think it’s quite the nice small town. We’re excited to be there and I think it was a good choice to come there. We just hope everybody supports us.”

The company features hot and cold coffee and tea drinks, smoothies, lemonade, pastries, breakfast sandwiches and burritos. It also has what it calls blenders — coffee drinks blended with ice cream.

The new building is a 632-square-foot kiosk, with one drive-thru lane. There is no indoor seating.

“It’s a great, great town and a great location,” Steffes said.