SAN JUAN ISLANDER

Winning the latte challenge

Story by Sharon Kivisto
Photo by Matt Pranger

Deanna Banry serves up three shakes for Juniper Thompson, Shelley and Kai Shelton-Wilson.

While many of us struggle to remember what we went into the next room for, Deanna Banry can rattle off 'the usual' for dozens of Roy's Drive in customers.

Just ask customer Kip Roberts. "I never have to worry," he said last week. "What is it my wife wants?" he turns and asks Banry.

Her quick replay: single short, light on the hazelnut, extra hot.

Return customers are familiar with Banry's incredible memory. "I have one customer who races me," she laughs. "I'll see Chris coming around the corner. Sometimes he hangs back in line until the customer in front of him has left the window. It's become a total game."

She usually wins and has his usual -- double mocha, no whipped cream-- ready before he reaches the window.

Explaining her exceptional memory isn't easy. She compares it to remembering what each key on a computer is used for.

"I remember details about things," she said. "As a kid, I was always asking my mom if she remembered things."

Her gift came in handy for spelling and arithmetic in school. She breezed through memorizing the multiplication tables. "I really struggled with reasoning though," she said.

One of her four children has inherited her memory skills. Clayton, age 11, can look at his spelling list and then ace the test.

Using her talent, Banry has taken what could be a monotonous job and made it challenging. "It makes it fun. I love my customers," she said. "The interaction is quick and brief. I see everyone from young to old. High School kids think it's cool to be able to say 'my usual'."

It doesn't take a lot to become a regular. Tourists who frequent the espresso stand, are surprised when they return the next year and Banry hands them their order before they've asked. "Some think we must make only one thing, and it just happens to be their favorite," she jokes. "Others say I must have polaroids up with the orders written on them."

Drink preferences are not the only details she remembers about her customers. One man came in and ordered an Americano for his girlfriend. "Isn't your girlfriend Trish?" she asked him. She sent him home with Trish's favorite -- double tall mocha with whipped cream.

Roy's Drive-in is located on the corner of Nichols and A Streets in Friday Harbor (behind Farmer's Insurance). It is open daily in the summer and every day but Sundays the rest of the year.

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