Dutch Bros Coffee — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

I used to love this location, it was the first Dutch brothers I ever tried. The drink quality has gone down, presumably due to the increase in customers. But I simply will not go to this location any longer, the drive thru has become incredibly disorganized, the staff rarely directs traffic or keeps tabs on who is coming in first. I've often told the kids working that the car beside me was there first, it seems only fair, but no one ever does this for me, and the employees do not seem to care if you make the point that they served two people before you that drove up after you arrived. Recently, a woman tried to cut me off in the drive thru, presumably so she'd get served first. When I pulled up, clearly first, and she pulled up beside me, the employee took her order as she was hanging out her window calling for the employee (idk if she was a friend or a former employee or what). I told the employee I was surprised she took her order before mine, as she nearly caused an accident trying to quickly cut in front of me in the drive thru, and the employee laughed it off and didn't really acknowledge it. That was the final straw for me, customers may act inappropriately but it's up to staff to direct customers so accidents don't happen and the line of customers flows smoothly. The staff is doing neither of these and, from my perspective, giving special treatment to other employees or friends. Change the double lanes situation, Hire someone to direct traffic, open a new location to ease up the line, whatever it takes, but the experience...

I was extremely excited to go to Dutch Bros as I had seen the story of the owners on television and how they started their journey and how the brother went undercover and blessed his employees with much gratitude. So upon my arrival at the walk up window (because I had small dogs that barked too loud) I explained my excitement to the young lady and in this exciting adventure I made an error on the size of coffee cup I wanted! I kept pointing to an extremly large cup. As I counted 20 something cars get served I asked were was my order was in their process..a very happy young man said it was coming! Ten minutes more overdue, it came out the Back Door! I questioned it's size and was answered as if I was a Confused Child.. None the less I opened the cup upset and there was No whip cream and caramel..She quoted "it melted" Of course it did! It was luke Warm" I left Very Disappointed!!! I had been driving thru the fire to get to a medical appt. And had to return thru it again to get home..I didn't Care how much the Coffee Cost! I wanted a Very Extra large coffee for the ride home to make a 4.5 hr drive which normally takes 1.5 hrs pleasant with a Nice cup of Coffee! I don't think I will ever return there again as I was totally let down..However I do have to say that there were two young men working and singing enjoying themselves in the rush of it all and that did put a smile on my face!! So something has to be said for their exuberant happiness...

I've been going to Dutch Bros since they were only a small franchise in Oregon. At their Mendocino location, my mother and I used to park and walk up to the window because the line of cars inevitably spills out into the street, blocking traffic. Coming to Santa Rosa for the first time since pandemic restrictions were lifted, we were stopped as we approached and told that this was no longer allowed.

On our second visit we parked in the lot, as usual, to avoid the crush. The way the tiny lot is organized, it's impossible to abort once you're in the car lane, which is another reason we hoped to avoid it. But since we couldn't get anyone's attention from the parking spot, we dutifully waded into the throng of cars.

There were two baristas taking orders from two lines, but they didn't seem to be sticking with any line in particular and so both managed to miss us for the entire 15 minutes it took to reach the window. When we finally arrived, the music was so loud that the barista and I could not hear each other without raising our voices, and confusion ensued when I tried to give them our loyalty card. I gradually ascertained they were no longer accepting those and he handed it back to us, one stamp short of a complimentary drink.

This occasion was notable as the first time that either of us have had an unpleasant experience with Dutch Bros., but we do hope that these changes don't...