Deb Kammes, Liz Kauffman and Jacqui Schnur began a recent Saturday on the Wheaton Holiday Housewalk. When they were done, they landed at a new coffee shop where they said patrons were easy going.
“It’s like nobody really cares about sharing tables here,” Schnur said.
More Top Picks Bathroom Fan
The three are no strangers to meeting at coffee houses.
“We go once a week to the Starbucks in Danada and we will sit in Starbucks for six hours,” Schnur said.
The last time they headed to their normal hangout, they had to wait for a table. So, they were happy to try Peet’s Coffee and Tea, which celebrated a grand opening earlier this month.
And Kammes already knew she would enjoy the coffee.
“I drink Peet’s coffee at home,” she said. “My daughter started drinking it in Philadelphia.”
Peet’s is located in downtown Wheaton on Front and S. West streets. It opened its doors locally the week of Oct. 27, according to Paula Barrington, director of the Downtown Wheaton Association.
The location on Front Street was a Caribou Coffee, that closed in August. The location in Danada Square had closed in April 2013, after being in business in that location for about 10 years. The Downtown Wheaton Association knew the Front Street location would not be vacant for long.
“The management of Caribou informed us that it would be converted into a Peet’s Coffee and Tea,” Barrington said.
It took time to transform the space to be consistent with the Peet’s branding.
“I know they did extensive build-out,” Barrington said.
Many of the area Caribou Coffee locations were planned to be taken over by Peet’s. But the one in neighboring Glen Ellyn will not reopen as a Peet’s.
Lyda Velez, vice president of access communications who handles corporate communication for Peet’s, said the Caribou Coffee location on Roosevelt Road in neighboring Glen Ellyn will not be converting to a Peet’s.
“At the time of our September launch, we shared with the baiduhai that the former Caribou Glen Ellyn location was not converting to Peet’s as we didn’t feel this location would meet our sales expectations,” she wrote.
The location on Front Street, though was busy on Saturday morning, with many patrons staying for a number of hours. Ariana Damaske, a student at Wheaton College who is originally from Italy and is studying international relations was working on a research paper. She said Peet’s did not really remind her of the cafes back home.
“In Italy, they’re a lot smaller,” she said. “I’ve been here for a couple of hours. I came in expecting it to be kinda empty, but it was packed full.”