Benson Espresso

Most Renton espresso stands are shut by mid afternoon. Benson runs to 6:30 on weekdays, which makes it one of the only windows on this side of the city you can still use on the way home. It also runs a drive through and a walk up at once: a customer who used the walk up described a barista working solo, serving both channels, and not letting it slow her down.

The house drink is listed simply as A DLB Red Bull and it is the most ordered thing on the menu. It is two full cans of Red Bull, two flavors, with a choice of orange juice, lemonade or cream, in one cup. What the letters stand for is not written down anywhere, so you will have to ask. The rest of the board is straightforward: latte, mocha, white chocolate mocha, macchiato, breve, a mocha frappe, chai and Italian sodas.

Food is small and specific. There is a breakfast sandwich, a burrito in four builds including chorizo and a meat free one, doughnut holes served in a sixteen ounce cup, muffin tops and cookies. One regular singles out the chorizo sausage breakfast burrito with hot sauce. No roaster is named by any source, and the business does not run a website, so the beans are an open question.

Staci Bowden owns it and it is a single stand rather than part of a group. The catch is the weekend: Saturday and Sunday close at 4 PM, two and a half hours earlier than the weekdays, so the late afternoon advantage disappears exactly when you might most expect to use it.