What?s Hot! Brewing on Dickson

On Sept. 4, Stephen Davis and his wife Darlene opened What’s Hot!, a coffee shop, inside their Smoothie King store at 309 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville.

Stephen Davis said sales normally drop off in the winter because smoothies are cold drinks, and people prefer hot drinks that time of year. The coffee shop is an effort to offset the seasonal slump.

(Smoothies are blended drinks made with fruit and juices. Smoothie King offers more than 50 different smoothies, many of them containing vitamins, herbs or other nutrients.)

Davis bought an Italian espresso machine — a La Pavoni, which lists for $11,000 — to get things started. The shop features three drip coffees daily — the house blend, an organic coffee and a Swiss water decaf coffee.

With the addition of coffee, Davis has changed the store’s hours, now opening daily at 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.

Davis said his shop is the only Smoothie King that also has a coffee shop. Smoothie King, which originated in New Orleans in 1973, now has 270 locations in 29 states. The company plans to have 300 stores in 30 states by the end of the year.

The Davises opened a Smoothie King franchise in November 1998. It was the second Smoothie King in Arkansas. The other is located in Little Rock.