Maggie Briggs, regional operator of the Dutch Bros Coffee drive-thru locations in Middle Georgia, (center) takes a selfie with her team members at a pop-up event in Statesboro, Georgia. Briggs, who lives in Warner Robins, is about to double the number of Middle Georgia locations. (Courtesy Maggie Briggs)

In her role as regional operator, Maggie Briggs opened not only her first Dutch Bros Coffee but also the national drive-thru coffee chain’s first location in Georgia in Warner Robins in July 2025.

In February this year, Briggs opened her second Dutch Bros Coffee in Statesboro, and in July, she opened her third in Macon.

At 27, she’s now opening two new Dutch Bros Coffee locations in Middle Georgia in early 2027. One in Warner Robins, and the other in Milledgeville about 30 miles northeast of Macon.

“When I became an operator, it was kind of like a ‘Momma, I made it’ moment,” said Briggs, who previously served as regional manager of Dutch Bros Coffee locations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before her promotion and move to Warner Robins in 2025. “It was everything that I’ve been working for since I was 18.

“That’s when I started as a barista, and I just worked my way up.”

Briggs started working at Dutch Bros Coffee while in college at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. She’s from the small town of Elkton, Oregon.

In her senior year in the fall of 2020, she left college to pursue a longtime career with Dutch Bros Coffee.

Golden balloons in shapes of numbers, 1, 2, 4, and 5 are attached to a dark brown wall of a Dutch Bros in Macon with the regional operator sanding underneath wearing a Dutch Bros T-shirt, shorts, sneakers and socks. Her hair is braded. — Regional operator Maggie Briggs outside the Macon location of Dutch Bros Coffee at 5781 Zebulon Road on grand opening day earlier this year. The balloons that form 1245 overhead represent that her Macon drive-thru coffee shop was the 1,245th Dutch Bros Coffee to open nationwide. (Courtesy Maggie Briggs)

“Now that I have three established locations, my biggest goal as a regional operator is just to develop my people and build leaders,” Briggs said. “An operator kind of leads the business, and then a manager leads the people.

“So, I do a lot of leadership development and personal work with each of my managers just to get them to hopefully become potential operators some day.”

Dutch Bros Coffee promotes leadership teams from within, with employees working their way up like Briggs did.

“I think it really helps when you get into that next position because you can understand where you were before then, and then the next person that fills that sport, like it’s very easy to understand their perspective and kind of teach them what you knew being in that position beforehand, and then everybody can kind of grow together,” Briggs said.

She expects to start hiring her leadership team in early December and hiring baristas with her new manager in January for the new Warner Robins location.

A young woman with a Dutch Bros T-shirt, pink colored hair and a scare over her head hands a large coffee to drink across the drive-thru window to customer in a car in the drive-thru with construction equipment in the background of the photo. — Dutch Bros Coffee barista Savannah Hill hands off a coffee drink to a customer at the Watson Boulevard location in Warner Robins. Groundwork is underway for a new Smalls Sliders and Guthries going up side by side to the east of Dutch Bros Coffee just past the Valvoline Instant Oil Change. (Becky Purser/HHJ)

The popular and fast-growing drive-thru coffee chain is known for its wide assortment of handcrafted beverages that include specialty coffees, protein coffees, nitro cold brews, its own Rebel energy drinks, smoothies, teas, freezes and lemonade.

“You can customize any drink that you want,” Briggs said.

Coffees and Rebel drinks are the brand’s best sellers, according to Briggs.

The most popular coffee drink remains the Golden Eagle, a caramel vanilla breve with espresso and caramel drizzle that comes hot, iced or blended like a coffee-based milkshake. It’s also available sugar free.

Dutch Bros is also known for delivering quality beverages with speed.

A safety sign is on the side of a chain linked fence with the Dutch Bros construction site in the main frame showing Georgia red clay and the foundation for the new Dutch Bros. The Dunkin' drive-thru and its sign can be seen in the background. — A new Dutch Bros Coffee is under construction at 860 Ga. 96 next to a Dunkin’ in Warner Robins. (Becky Purser/HHJ)

The new Warner Robins location is under construction at 860 Ga. 96 between a Dunkin’ that is part of the shopping center to its west and the new Magic Market convenience store and Sunoco gas station to its east.

Dutch Bros Coffee wasn’t necessarily looking for a rival to set up beside, according to Briggs.

“I believe we’ll be able to look out our drive-thru window into theirs, so that’ll be kind of funny. But it’s just a matter of going where the market is,” she said.

“A lot of people travel either 96 or Watson … So, it just makes sense for us to post up on our next location on 96.”

A sugar-free Golden Eagle iced coffee on the dashboard of a SUV with the Dutch Bros Coffee drive-thru off Watson Boulevard shown in the background. (Becky Purser/HHJ)

The new location is expected to be similar in look and design to the Dutch Bros Coffee at 2695 Watson Blvd. in Warner Robins.

The 986-square-foot new Dutch Bros Coffee will rest on a 1.02 acre lot with a single access point to be cut along Ga. 96 for both inbound and outbound traffic, according to the site plan submitted to the city of Warner Robins.

The driveway leads into the parking lot and into the two drive-thru lanes, allowing vehicles to circulate around the building and access the drive-thru and 24 parking spaces, the plan shows.

The building is designed with both a drive-thru window and a walk-up window with sidewalk connections from the parking lot to the walk-up window, according to the site plan. There is no inside seating.

At 18, Briggs was drawn to the popularity of Dutch Bros Coffee and its company culture of being a fun place to work. That hasn’t changed.

“It keeps you young,” said Briggs, who noted that team members are like family and customers are a priority. “It’s fun and exciting and organized chaos all the same.

“But it’s a good time … I love my job or I wouldn’t be here.”