Woods Coffee Bakerview Square

This is the store for people who are going somewhere else. Bakerview Square sits a minute off I-5 at Bakerview Road on the north side of Bellingham, which puts it directly on the path of anyone driving to or from the Canadian border, the airport, or the north county towns. The drive through is built to keep a line moving rather than to linger.

There is a room inside with a fireplace for anyone who does decide to stay, which is more than a pure window offers. But the honest read is that the lane is the point and the seating is the backup, and that is the opposite balance from the Boulevard Park store a few miles south.

What you get in the cup is the same as at the other five, and that consistency is the argument for a chain in the first place. Woods roasts its own coffee and bakes its own pastries, so a fast stop here is not a compromise on what is being handed out the window.

The company is a Whatcom County family business that began in Lynden in 2002 and still runs about two dozen stores. Of the six in Bellingham, this is the one to pick when the goal is to be back on the freeway in four minutes.