The drive-thru lane is some of the most crowded real estate in American food, and much of what moves through it is coffee. Sunfly, which debuts its first location at 4740 S. Colony Blvd. in The Colony, is betting that the same lane can carry something closer to a bar program: nitro lemonades, matcha crowned with fruit cold foam, and cold brew built like dessert, handed through a window with a snack for about $10. The company’s website lists menu service from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The bet belongs to Matt Bailey and John Brennan, hospitality operators with roots in craft cocktail bars and chef-driven kitchens, and with full-service restaurants of their own. “Sunfly grew out of our passion for creating great drinks,” says Bailey, a co-founder, who describes the goal as the creativity of those restaurants delivered at drive-thru speed. It’s a small case study in how restaurant people think: take technique that usually costs a table and a reservation, and make it a stop on the way to work.
There’s an economic logic under the palm fronds. A bar earns its living on the night out, while a drive-thru earns it on a Tuesday morning, again on Wednesday and again on Thursday. Sunfly is moving the first idea onto the second schedule, and it’s doing it with ingredients you’d expect behind a bar: cold-pressed juice, real fruit purée and cold foam made in house…