Two fast-growing coffee chains are fighting over 73 abandoned drive-thru sites left behind by Salad and Go's bankruptcy, and the winner could reshape the national coffee map heading into 2027.
7 Brew has emerged as the lead bidder in a bulk bankruptcy auction for the former Salad and Go locations, offering more than $143 million for all 73 sites, according to court filings tied to the case. Dutch Bros, which had separately negotiated to buy 65 of the locations for roughly $105 million, now sits as the backup bidder after 7 Brew's lawyers challenged that side deal and forced the properties into a formal auction.
The stakes are straightforward. Whoever walks away with those storefronts, spread across Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas, gains an instant footprint that would take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to build from scratch. For 7 Brew, the acquisition would nearly close the gap with Dutch Bros in total store count heading into 2027.
Salad and Go, the fast-casual drive-thru chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August and permanently shuttered every remaining location. The company carried approximately $52.4 million in funded debt at the time of filing.
Omar Alaniz, a managing partner at the law firm Reed Smith who represents Salad and Go in the proceedings, described 7 Brew's offer as "above robust." He said the bid would cover the outstanding payments the chain owes its creditors, a critical threshold for any bankruptcy court weighing competing offers.
The 7 Brew bid breaks down into two tranches: roughly $125 million for 49 locations, which works out to about $2.5 million per site, and just over $18 million for another 24 locations at approximately $750,000 each. The price gap between the two batches suggests the 49 higher-value sites sit in stronger markets, though the specific breakdown by city or state has not been disclosed in public filings.
Dutch Bros had moved first. The company entered a separate agreement to acquire 65 of the Salad and Go locations for about $105 million before 7 Brew's legal team intervened and pushed for a competitive auction. That challenge worked. The properties went to open bidding, and 7 Brew came in nearly $40 million higher.
Dutch Bros CEO and president Christine Barone issued a statement through the company's investor relations page making clear the chain would not chase the price upward:
"While we have chosen not to increase our original offer, we remain engaged in the process and will continue to evaluate opportunities where the total investment provides the appropriate return."
Barone framed the decision as consistent with the company's broader growth philosophy:
"We've always been disciplined in how we allocate capital."
That discipline has not slowed Dutch Bros' expansion plans. The company currently operates roughly 1,200 locations and added four new stores in four states this summer. Barone has publicly committed to reaching 2,029 shops by 2029, a target she reiterated in the same statement.
"New shop growth is one of the most important drivers of our long-term strategy, and we remain highly confident in our path to 2,029 shops in 2029."
7 Brew is the smaller chain, but it is growing fast. The company opened its 777th drive-thru store in June and has said it intends to reach approximately 1,000 units by the end of the year. Adding 73 former Salad and Go sites in one transaction would put 7 Brew "almost even" with Dutch Bros in total store count going into 2027.
That kind of leap does not happen often in the restaurant industry. Chains typically add locations one permit, one lease, and one build-out at a time. Bankruptcy auctions offer a rare shortcut, ready-made drive-thru sites, already zoned and built, sitting empty and available in bulk. For a company trying to scale quickly, the math is hard to pass up.
7 Brew also made a major change to its ordering process last month, though the specifics of that change were not detailed in available reporting. The company's willingness to bid aggressively for physical locations while simultaneously retooling operations suggests a chain that sees this moment as a pivotal window to gain ground.
None of this happens without Salad and Go's failure. The chain, which operated under the corporate name And Go Concepts LLC, went from a growing drive-thru brand to a bankrupt one in short order. Its August Chapter 11 filing listed roughly $52.4 million in funded debt, and the company closed every remaining store permanently, leaving dozens of purpose-built drive-thru locations sitting dark across four states.
The court has not yet formally accepted or rejected either bid, and several questions remain unanswered. Which creditors are owed money, and how much each is owed, has not been publicly detailed. Whether 7 Brew's lawyers raised specific legal objections to the Dutch Bros side deal, or simply argued that an open auction would produce a better result for creditors, is also unclear from the public docket.
What is clear is the outcome so far: the auction produced a bid nearly $40 million higher than the original negotiated price. Creditors stand to recover more. And one of two coffee chains will walk away with a ready-made expansion that would otherwise take years to build.
The free market, when someone actually insists on using it, has a way of finding the real price.
