Is this Parkland coffee drive-thru with signature drinks and cool swag the best in WA?

In under 250 square feet, on an otherwise typical plaza stretch of Pacific Highway south of Tacoma, unearth the magic of Prayers and pumpkin-spiced lattes — but not the kind you think.

Welcome to Wolfe Club.

Join by driving up to one of two windows and ordering the signature Flying Dutchman, a white coffee drink (beans roasted at very low temperatures) enriched with a house chai and salted caramel. For a few weeks every fall, switch to the pumpkin, sweetened with another homemade syrup. Alternatively, enter the Dream Machine, espresso blended with a house vanilla and orange creamsicle sauce. Accept a sticker, and become a member.

In a sea of drive-thru caffeine cafes, Wolfe Club is just plain different.

I first stopped on my way to Mount Rainier after following the shop on Instagram and wondering, “Is this a coffee shop, or something else?” The branding is almost too good — each photo on the grid bears the same retro tonality, like a Polaroid from the Summer of Love. Seasonal releases, like that Pumpkin Flying Dutchman or the Peppermint Bark latte, receive red-carpet treatment: What the heck is a roll-through party?

At Wolfe Club, it involves a drink release and corresponding gear, including limited-edition stickers and shirts with ‘70s-themed lettering that sell out within hours.

“Anybody can like Wolfe Club. You don’t have to just like coffee or know a lot about coffee,” said Kristen Basargin, the shop’s resident artist and daughter of Pam Wolfe-Larkin, who bought this drive-thru coffee stand at 12901 Pacific Highway S. in 2007.

Then it was called BrewIt4U, recalled Basargin and her brother Mark Larkin, who took full ownership of the family business last year. They laugh out loud over the original name — “the number 4!” — but they commend their mother, who steered a low-margin business through the financial crisis and what they described as meager sales. They recalled working at the shop in high school, watching television because only 30 cars or so would stop.

Wolfe-Larkin thinks the building, originally a hamburger shop, was the first drive-thru in Pierce County. It later became a teriyaki restaurant and eventually a coffee stand. She didn’t know the industry but wanted to own her own business, and she lived down the street. By 2015, this area of Parkland had changed. Her kids said it seemed less safe, less interesting — and big-brand coffee shops had permeated their territory, including a Starbucks next door and regional chains like Gravity Coffee and Bigfoot Java.

“How do we stand out?” said Larkin, who around that time had decided the corporate world was not for him and stepped into the family business as its new leader. They changed the name to Wolfe Club Coffee Roasters, and as his mom explained, “He made it into something really great.”

These other shops don’t have the capacity to mass-produce syrups or roast coffee on-site, recalled Larkin in October, a few weeks after the shop landed in the top-20 of a Yelp list of best coffee shops in the country.

“What’s something we can do that they can’t do?” he asked. “We can make it ours.”

MAKING WOLFE CLUB COFFEE

Nuzzled into one corner of the close-quarters shop is a Coffee Crafters Artisan 9 roaster, sourced from a company in Post Falls, Idaho, that makes small-footprint, affordable roasters. Larkin is often here until midnight, pouring through almost a dozen 10-pound batches to satisfy an average of 100 pounds every week and almost 300 cars a day.

Incidentally, their most popular drink is not even coffee: It’s Prayers, a carbonated energy drink crafted and kegged in-house, served from a fridge that somehow also fits.

It starts with a custom high-caffeine tea blend from a Tacoma shop and green (unroasted) coffee beans, sweetened with honey, a bit of citric acid and natural fruit oils for flavor. You can enjoy simply over ice or dabble in one of four signature add-ins with names like Green Dragon (sour apple, kiwi, lemon) and Lazer Lizard (wild cherry, key lime). It tastes similar to kombucha but provides more of a jolt.

“It was our goal to create an energy drink that we felt good about drinking and about serving,” said Larkin, who spent two years perfecting the recipe. An employee named it Prayers.

On a crisp fall Monday around 10 a.m., the cars kept rolling, and the staff — today the duo of manager Kylene Schmekel and Kaeden Kalfaolu — kept smiling, engaging with each customer as if they had been there a million times before, even if it was their first visit.

It was precisely this hospitality that enamored me during my Wolfe Club inauguration, and what has kept me coming back every time I’m driving down state Route 7 — in addition to Basargin’s sweet stickers and, of course, the memorable coffee drinks, delicious Prayers and exclusive pastries baked at Pacific Lutheran University.

“Our customers aren’t just customers to us,” said Larkin. “They’re part of our club, and they engage with the club by wearing our stuff all the time, collecting our stickers. We know their name. They are Wolfe Club, and they make us what we are.”

WOLFE CLUB COFFEE ROASTERS

▪ 12901 Pacific Ave. S, Tacoma, 253-328-7117, wolfeclub.com

▪ Monday-Friday 5 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

▪ Details: drive-thru coffee shop with housemade syrups and unique carbonated energy drink, pastries and retro-themed swag

▪ Follow instagram.com/wolfeclubcoffeeroasters for special releases