Ellie Stevens lives two blocks away from the drive-thru 7 Brew coffee store in Naperville. When it opened in October 2024, long lines would snake around Iroquois Avenue and stretch all the way towards Ogden Avenue, she said.
“It was more dangerous because there’d be a lot of cars turning around in the middle of the street (to get in line),” she said.
Now, Stevens said, congestion has eased and employees in yellow vests can be seen more frequently managing the traffic flow.
“It’s still a little bit of a nuisance, but we don’t see it going around the block to Ogden like we did in the past,” she said.
City staff and 7 Brew representatives have noticed the slowdown as well after months of efforts to reduce congestion around the busy drive-thru-only coffee shop.
“Obviously in 2025 there was some congestion over there with 7 Brew when they first opened,” Naperville transportation manager Mike Prousa said. “But the past few months, there has been less and less congestion as more stores have opened throughout the region.”
As the first 7 Brew to open in the Chicago area, the Naperville business was drawing customers from all over the region. Nearly half of all customers were traveling anywhere between 10 to 30 miles to buy coffee, according to a Naperville Sun story published in September 2025.
Now, as more stores have opened in the Chicago area, visitors to the Naperville location are coming from within 10 miles of the location, according to Sarah Pomella, chief of staff for 7 Brew franchisee Who Brew LLC.
“We opened with a bit of a bang, and it was a surprise to us as much as I think it was a surprise to the community,” Pomella said. “We’re obviously thrilled that everyone is such a big fan. Because of that, we’ve been trying to open as many stands as possible close by.”
Since January 2025, 7 Brew has opened 11 more locations in the Chicago area, including one in Lockport in September, two in Joliet in September and December, one in Bolingbrook in December and one in Bloomingdale in March.
More stores are also on the way, including one planned for St. Charles.
The city and 7 Brew have also taken steps to quell traffic, including an agreement in which 7 Brew agreed to end its special “Jackpot” promotional deals – held on the seventh of each month – at the Naperville location.
Prousa said that “definitely” helped with congestion in the area. Over time, as word got out that the Naperville location was no longer participating in the deals, patrons were no longer showing up in the droves in the hope of receiving a free drink, sticker or other item.
The city prohibited southbound left turns from Iroquois to the 7 Brew driveway when the drive-thru was at capacity so traffic would not back up towards Ogden.
As for 7 Brew’s part, Pomella said the store has started to more consistently use a third-party traffic controller during peak hours, which she noted has also helped with congestion.
“We started to have traffic control since the very beginning … but we now, in the past couple of months, have them on a more consistent basis every weekend, especially through the summer, because that’s our busiest time,” she said.
City engineer Andy Hynes made a similar observation.
“I think that we’ve seen that the issues are somewhat related to the school year to some degree,” Hynes said. “When school went in session last fall, that’s when we saw a pretty big drop in some of the queues around the store.”
With summer just around the corner, Prousa and Hynes said they are not worried about traffic flare-ups thanks to the steps already taken.
An effort to address broader traffic issues in the area is also on the way. Work to install an upgraded traffic signal at the intersection of Iroquois Avenue and Ogden Avenue could begin this summer, Hynes said.
The new light was originally approved when Costco announced plans to build a new location off Ogden.
“When the new signal gets turned on, it’ll have a left-turn arrow on Iroquois (Avenue), which the current signal does not have. That should help with some of the traffic,” Hynes said.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
