Jim Roberts, inventor of coffee drive-thru, co-founder of beloved Coffee People chain, dies at 74
Jim Roberts, the co-founder of cult-favorite Portland coffee chain Coffee People credited with inventing the coffee drive-thru, has died, according to an Instagram post from Jim & Patty’s, Coffee People’s successor. He was 74.
“There’s a hole in our hearts after yesterday’s passing of Jim Roberts,” the post reads. “The only thing that can make our loss feel lighter is his continued legacy and the love he left for everyone.”
Born in Cottage Grove to a logger-preacher father, Jim Roberts attended the University of Oregon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was there that newlyweds Jim and Patty Roberts had their first taste of quality espresso – Folgers was the norm back then – and decided to dip their toe into selling pour-over coffees and fresh-baked baklava at Eugene’s Saturday Market. They didn’t make a dime.
“I was an English major,” Jim Roberts said by way of explanation in a 2006 story in The Oregonian, not an MBA.
After a pair of failed ventures in Portland and the Oregon coast, the couple returned to Portland in 1983 and opened the first Coffee People shop, imbuing the cafe with a little “post-hippie” Eugene vibe, including tie-dyed merch, chalk-drawn signs and a promise of “good coffee” and “no backtalk.”
As The Oregonian’s Grant Butler wrote in 2016, in the days before Starbucks came to town, Coffee People was the place many Portlanders tried their first lattes, mochas and other espresso drinks.
Roberts is credited with opening one of America’s first drive-thru coffee shops, Motor Moka, which debuted on Northeast Grand Avenue in 1990, where it attracted reporters from national magazines and TV news shows. At its peak, 2,500 cars passed through the drive-thru daily. Motor Moka’s success paved the way for Dutch Bros., another popular Oregon coffee company, as well as Starbucks’ many drive-through outlets.
Meanwhile, Coffee People started to expand at a rapid pace, seeking to become the Burger King to Starbucks’ McDonald’s. But after a successful public offering and a major push into airports and other markets in the 1990s, Coffee People was losing money, fast. The Portland company merged with Canada’s Second Cup in 1998 and then sold to Diedrich Coffee Inc., losing Jim and Patty along the way.. Eventually, Coffee People was acquired by Starbucks, the company that had prompted their growth in the first place. The Coffee People name mostly disappeared.
After a stint in seminary school and a brief sojourn to Texas, Jim and Patty Roberts returned to Portland and opened All Y’all’s BBQ on Northeast Broadway in 2001. That business lasted less than a year.
So when their noncompete clauses were up, the Roberts were ready to jump back in the coffee game. Launched with a cafe on Northeast Fremont Street in late 2002 and serving sour cream coffee cake and a few specialty drinks familiar to fans of the original Coffee People, Jim & Patty’s Coffee, brought the spirit back to life for the chain’s many fans. Jim & Patty’s now has four Portland-area locations, while a Motor Moka location reopened last year in Vancouver.