The line of cars that has been Merrick's morning ritual for four years is about to get a North Shore twin. Coffee Barn, the drive-thru coffee stop at 2081 Merrick Rd., opens its second location on Wednesday, September 17 at 1181 Willis Ave. in Albertson, according to the company's own announcements. And in the detail that makes this more than a coffee shop opening, the building it is moving into is another old Dairy Barn.

The drive-thru that came back to life

For decades, Dairy Barn's little drive-thru huts were as much a part of the Long Island landscape as diners and bagel stores. You pulled up, a clerk leaned out the window, and you drove off with milk, eggs and bread without ever leaving the driver's seat. The chain faded away, but the buildings never quite disappeared. Dozens of the distinctive peaked-roof structures still sit in parking lots and on corners across Nassau and Suffolk, converted into delis, convenience stores, or nothing at all.

Coffee Barn's founders saw the obvious use hiding in plain sight: a building designed from day one for drive-thru service, sitting in towns full of commuters. The Merrick original took over one of those refurbished Dairy Barn buildings and turned it into what the company calls Long Island's famous drive-thru, pouring specialty coffee, signature lattes, dirty sodas, iced teas, matcha, milkshakes and soft serve to a following that now tops 38,000 on Instagram.

What is coming to Willis Avenue

The Albertson location follows the same playbook in another building the brand has described as a space that had already lived one life. The company first announced the Willis Avenue project in April and spent the spring and summer building it out, with the address sitting on the Albertson and Roslyn Heights line, a few minutes from the Clark Botanic Garden and the Willis Avenue school corridor.

The timing lands the opening squarely in the season the brand has built its reputation on. The fall menu went live at Merrick this month, and it is not a subtle one: an apple cider donut latte that arrives with an actual fresh donut on it, cold brews topped with slices of pie, and the pumpkin lineup that fills the drive-thru line every October.

Why this one travels

Plenty of coffee shops open on Long Island every month. This one carries something extra: the shape of the building itself. For anyone who grew up here in the Dairy Barn era, pulling up to that hut for a latte instead of a quart of milk is a small time-travel moment, and the brand leans into the history rather than papering over it. Its own posts have called the project the great revival of the Dairy Barn.

It is also a story about which way the traffic flows. Merrick residents have had this to themselves since the original opened in 2022. Albertson, Roslyn Heights, Williston Park and East Hills now get their own window, and the middle of Nassau County no longer has to drive to the South Shore for it.

The details

Coffee Barn Albertson opens Wednesday, September 17 at 1181 Willis Ave. The Merrick original at 2081 Merrick Rd. remains open daily, with the full fall menu already running. If the second location inherits even half of the first one's following, the smart move that first week is to go early, go on a weekday, and know your order before you reach the window.