We asked you on Instagram, we asked you on X, and we asked you via an online form, and overwhelmingly the Utah coffee shop that was nominated the most by Salt Lake Tribune readers as their favorite isn’t a coffee shop at all — it’s a drive-thru: Java Jo’s.
Founded in 1996 by brothers and business partners Ryan and Chad Corbin, who are originally from Idaho, Java Jo’s has five east-side locations spread across Salt Lake County: two in Salt Lake City proper, two in Millcreek, and one in Cottonwood Heights.
When asked why he thought Java Jo’s was nominated the most and not one of Salt Lake City’s many cozy coffee shops, Ryan Corbin said, “The destination places are always going to be there,” but Java Jo’s is part of the “fabric” of people’s daily routine. “We’re part of their daily ritual,” he said.
Java Jo’s is also “very efficient,” Corbin said, and people don’t have to find parking in order to get their tried-and-true drink there. Plus, “the coffee’s awesome,” he added.
A Java Jo’s morning
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Emilia Tartaro hands a rewards card to a customer in the drive thru at Java Jo's on 1300 East in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
On a recent Thursday around 9:30 a.m., at the Java Jo’s at 877 S. 1300 East in Salt Lake City, across the street from East High School, the two drive-thru lanes in front of the shop were full of cars, with drivers waiting to get their coffee.
They didn’t have to wait long, though. After just a couple of minutes, Java Jo’s employee Lilly Roberts would be at their driver’s side window with an iPad, ready to take their order.
Next, baristas Jenna Kanjo and Shannon Lara would prepare the orders inside, then the car would pull forward to the window and the driver would be handed their drink, or Ryan or Chad Corbin would run it out to them.
One of the regulars at Java Jo’s that Thursday was Jeff Barnard, who said he stops by almost every day. He ordered a black drip coffee for himself, and a 16-ounce latte with four shots and a pump of vanilla for his wife. Barnard said he likes Java Jo’s because “the people are great. It’s really fun. I’ve come here so much, I feel like they’re family. So it’s just part of my morning routine.”
Ryan Corbin said Java Jo’s staff is one of the reasons the coffee stands are so popular. “We don’t have to do a huge amount of training because we hire nice people, and they typically treat other people nicely,” he said.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Two drinks sit on a counter at Java Jo's on 1300 East in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
When Roberts came to his car to take his order, Jonathon Duerig — who said this Java Jo’s location is a convenient stop on his way to work at the University of Utah — ordered a drink called the Frozen Jo, which is a blend of fresh espresso, vanilla powder and ice. Ryan Corbin said the Frozen Jo is one of Java Jo’s most popular drinks. “It’s what pays our rent,” he said jokingly.
The Frozen Jo has been around since the beginning, when Java Jo’s menu was much smaller and offered only two size options: 8 ounces and 12 ounces, Corbin said.
Since those early days, Java Jo’s has served Lavazza coffee from Italy, which is another reason why Corbin said the business stands out in the local coffee scene. “When we opened, the whole coffee culture was about Europe, so we went and found the very best Italian espresso that we could find,” he said.
That Thursday morning, when a Tribune reporter asked Destiny Garcia what she was planning to order as she waited in line, Garcia said she wasn’t sure yet. “But my co-worker got me something the other day that was spectacular,” she said. “So I’m going to try to figure out what that was.” Garcia added that while she was new to the Java Jo’s experience, she liked the idea of supporting a local business to get coffee instead of a national chain.
Unlike Garcia, Christian Perry is a true blue Java Jo’s fan. A senior at East High School, Perry, who ordered a mocha, said he comes to this location just about every day. “I’m a fiend for this place,” he said.
The early days of Java Jo’s
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) An employee hands a drink to a customer at Java Jo's on 1300 East in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
After Ryan Corbin graduated from the University of Idaho in December 1993, he moved to Salt Lake City the next month to be a “ski bum” for a gap year between undergrad and graduate school, with plans to eventually go to law school, he said.
When he arrived in Salt Lake City, he wasn’t yet a habitual coffee drinker, but it still struck him how few and far between the coffee options were at the time.
“It was like, ‘Man, there’s no coffee here.’ Of course, I knew about the Mormon thing, I mean, I’m from Idaho,” Corbin said. “But I figured there were some sinners, like, somebody wants coffee.”
Remembering a drive-thru coffee stand that opened in his Idaho college town around the time he graduated, he mentioned to his dad that he thought a drive-thru coffee business would do well in Salt Lake City, Corbin said.
His dad told him that he would loan him the $12,000 needed to start the first location, so Ryan Corbin and his brother decided to give it a shot.
They opened their first location in Murray, in the parking lot of a Kmart at 4670 S. 900 East. It was an “8-by-8 box” without any air conditioning, and “we just sat in there and sweated,” Corbin said.
About six months later, the man who owned the printing shop that printed Java Jo’s stamp cards said he had a property available in the Avenues that the Corbins should look at.
That day, Ryan Corbin went to look at the property, which was at the corner of First Avenue and E Street. Believing that the Avenues was the place to sell coffee, he said, Corbin and his brother signed an agreement that made the plot Java Jo’s second location, and it opened in 1997. Today, the Avenues location, at 401 First Ave., is one of Java Jo’s busiest shops, Corbin said.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sophie George prepares a drink at Java Jo's on 1300 East in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
In 2000, the brothers opened their third location, at 6895 S. Highland Drive in Cottonwood Heights, in the Dan’s grocery store parking lot.
A little over a decade later, in 2012, they added their fourth location, at 877 S. 1300 East in Salt Lake City, right across from East High School.
And in 2019, just before COVID-19, they opened their fifth location, at 3333 S. 2300 East in Millcreek.
In 2022, the Kmart property in Murray was sold, and Java Jo’s ended up having to move its location there a block north, into Millcreek, to 847 E. 4500 South in the Smith’s parking lot.
Today, Java Jo’s employs 43 people, Corbin said. “I know every single person that works for me,” he said, “and we have people that have worked for us for two decades, and multiple that have been there for longer than 10 years.”
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
