Trailer Perk Coffee adding brick-and-mortar shop

A 6-year-old mobile coffee business is expanding with its first brick-and-mortar shop.

Trailer Perk Coffee LLC is targeting a summer opening at 2848 W. Chestnut Expressway.

"We have had the good fortune to be able to expand and look forward to allowing Trailer Perk Coffee customers to have a permanent location they can enjoy rather than trying to hunt me down," owner Amber Ottoson said via email.

Discovered after buying the land for undisclosed terms, the site is the original location of the historic Red's Giant Hamburg. The restaurant closed in 1984 after 47 years in business on Route 66. A new iteration of the concept was launched at 2301 W. Sunshine St. in 2019, according to past reporting.

"We considered it good luck that Trailer Perk Coffee (established in Springfield in 2017) would now sit on a historical piece of property," Ottoson said. "It was a fun surprise."

Ottoson said the 16-foot by 30-foot building that's currently under construction at the site is "designed to look like a vintage mobile home" with a double-lane drive-thru on the east side of the building. Her husband, Peter, and Bruner Construction are building the project designed by Hood-Rich Inc., she said. The project cost was undisclosed.

During the construction process, Ottoson has paused the trailer operations and plans to restart them when the brick-and-mortar shop opens.