By Carly Walton

“Customer, Culture and Community.” These three words are the values that Clutch Coffee Bar holds their business and employees to. Clutch Coffee Bar made its first appearance in North Carolina, in Mooresville, in 2018. The chain stayed mainly in North Carolina until roughly around 2024, when they had expanded to South Carolina with a total of 20 stores across the Carolinas. The drive-thru style coffee chain was largely inspired by Dutch Bros Coffee, for which the CEO, Darren Spicer, of Clutch had worked, and for which Spicer had told Shawn Walchef of Entrepreneur Magazine.  

January 13, 2026, is when the news broke to the employees of Clutch and everyone who loved their coffee; they were being acquired by Dutch Bros, and all of their stores would be shutting down on January 16, only three days after the news broke. The reactions that can be seen all over the Clutch Coffee Bar Instagram page are filled with disappointed customers and others who have wished Clutch well on their future endeavors. Clutch’s Instagram page started turning off the comments due to some of the backlash that was being said about the company as a whole, with one person commenting under one of the posts, “Spicer is a sellout.” If you go to Dutch Bro’s Instagram page, there is nothing anywhere about them acquiring Clutch, where a majority of people who drink Dutch Bros Coffee are out on the West Coast. The three days leading to the closure of Clutch, the drive-thru line was backed up what seemed like half a mile at the Greensboro location, as well as the other 19 locations that are scattered throughout the Carolinas. While customers were posting on their Instagram stories about how much they will miss Clutch, the store was reposting those stories onto its own page.  

When thinking about how the employees of Clutch Coffee felt about the acquisition, junior Keira Fenyo shared with me, “It was one of the best jobs I have ever had.” Fenyo worked at Clutch for three weeks starting in December of 2025. When asked about her favorite part of working at Clutch, Fenyo said, “I felt comfortable being myself around them as they were very welcoming.” Fenyo mentions that she has been a fan of Clutch since coming to GC, where she is originally from Maryland, and Clutch was only in North Carolina at the time. I asked Fenyo about Clutch’s slogan and if Clutch held their employees to a high standard with their slogan. “The Clutch employees did stand by our slogan,” Fenyo shares. “Customers would come to Clutch rather than any other coffee place just because of the employees.”  

When I asked Fenyo about how Clutch announced being acquired, Fenyo said, “I personally feel as though the announcement could have been more than just a post; people were just in distress and had so many questions. They gave employees a three-day notice after telling only a few of us over a Zoom call. Not ideal, but it is what it is. I just hope Dutch Bros is worth it.” 

Dutch Bros does have one official stand in North Carolina, which is in Morrisville, between Cary and Raleigh. The Location opened its doors on December 11, 2025, and has been busy since. An employee at Dutch Bros told me, “We are not able to give customers the order-ahead option through the app because we are busy with the drive-thru alone.”  

There is not a set date for when we will see Dutch Bros Coffee in the Clutch locations. All locations are currently going through a remodel. We do not know how much money Dutch Bros spent to acquire all of the Clutch Coffee locations or any of the details, for that matter. What we do know is that, like Clutch, Dutch Bros will be giving away stickers a couple of times a month, and they will be taking over the drive-thru coffee game.