A new coffee place in town is causing a stir, 7 Brew’s upcoming grand opening continues to elicit excitement and intrigue all around campus.

Cars have been seen painted with bold messages such as “We love 7 Brew,” and lines for the drive-thru have been overflowing onto State Route 104, causing traffic jams as people rush to try their new coffee-based drinks. This past weekend the fast growing drive-thru only coffee chain held a soft launch opening touting a limited menu on “a pay-what-you-want basis as a donation to Blessings in a Backpack.”

Their public relations specialist Anne Reed, hailing from Nashville, Tennessee provided The Oswegonian with a flyer with a list of dates where the coffee franchise will be offering targeted promotional deals up until their official opening. 

The 7 Brew company was launched by its co-founder Ron Crume with one initial location in the small city of Rogers, Arkansas in 2017. Under Crume’s leadership, the single location was able to be expanded into eight stores. Nearly three years later, after a stall in franchise growth, an investor named John Davidson pulled together a financial backing, buying the franchise from co-founder Crume and organized it under the Brew Culture LLC in 2020. Information about the other investors involved in this early change of hands regarding the ownership of the 7 Brew company is currently unavailable through public research avenues. 

One of the first big name investors which assisted CEO Davidson in this venture’s rise was Jimmy John’s founder, Jimmy John Liautaud, who joined the financial undertaking in late 2021. With the sandwich chain owner’s help the company known as 7 Brew was able to grow from nine shops to almost 200 locations.

Over two years later, after this 2,000% business growth had been achieved, the stock in the company that was held by Liautaud was sold to Blackstone in 2024. A move that has been praised by the current 7 Brew corporate management group, stating that Blackstone “understands our culture and whose global reach and incredible resources will enable us to reach this next stage of growth.”

While this move was praised publicly, a legal showdown in the civil suits court points to financial mistrust, which started when 7 Brew illegally refused to share books and financial records information with Liautaud’s company leading up to this change of share ownership. In response to the initial lawsuit filed by Liautaud’s company, 7 Brew admitted to withholding this information, but proceeded to countersue. This legal fight eventually culminated in Blackstone’s acquisition of Liautaud’s shares of 7 Brew’s company.

According to the noted public statements, 7 Brew intends to continue this rate of expansion and this intention is shown by the coffee franchise’s recent appearance here in the town of Oswego. Rural and suburban areas have been noted to be the main areas of interest for the coffee franchise by their Chief Financial Officer, Nicole Miller Regan, leaving the more urban areas passed over as potential franchise locations.

Regan also stated that their target audience encompasses late night shift nurses and strapped-for-time college students, something that aligns with their fast paced service model. Although the company is facing competition with the popularity of the various locally owned coffee shops and Dunkin’ Donuts locations located near the SUNY Oswego campus.

One car was spotted, whose 7 Brew’s excitement paint had barely faded, pulling into the local Dunkin’ Donuts to get coffee instead of at the new 7 Brew drive-thru company’s location.