Nick Gilman may be no latte come lately, but his Daily Perk coffee shop in downtown Medford is one of the latest entrants in a coffee war brewing in Medford's central business area -- with more to come soon.

The stand at Eighth Street and Riverside Avenue sprang up three weeks ago with a walk-up window and two drive-ups. A small indoor dining area will be added within two months, along with outdoor picnic table and umbrellas for the summer.

"Once people come through, they try our coffee, and they come back," Gilman says. "We do really great coffee with a smile."

They serve Italian-made Elly coffee in tongue-boggling varieties.

"We're into the hundreds," Gilman says. "Our specialty is something we call the White Wolf. That's white chocolate, vanilla and espresso."

At $2.75 for a 16-ounce cup -- and with 30,000 cars zipping past every day -- Gilman figures it's bound to be a hit. His cousins and partners Reid and Tamara Richy already are well-established at a 2-year-old Daily Perk on West Main Street, near Blackbird.

Still, in this business, you've got to keep your nose to the grounds.

"Its very competitive," Gilman says.

A few blocks south on Riverside, Grants Pass-based Dutch Brothers Coffee hung out its shingle soon after Daily Perk opened.

Inside RCC's Ninth Street building, "The Dean of Bean" coffee wagon from Downtown Gourmet creams off the college crowd hanging next to the bookstore.

"We've been here way longer -- since at least February!" Mandy Pardun says, bragging on the Dean's Snickers and mocha-flavored coffee drinks.

Meanwhile, downtown Medford's older standbys, C.K. Tiffin's and Boulangerie Rue de Main, offer sandwiches and more to any brew-drinkers filtering up Main Street a block or two.

At Front and Sixth streets, there's Sal Mellelo's coffee shop. And at Main and Holly streets? Well, there's Sal's other Mellelo's, a bit of Europeana across from Alba Park.

Lotsa java? You bet, says Lola Minenna, co-owner of Cafe New Orleans at Main and Central Avenue, where the concrete dust has barely settled and fresh tile is being laid. Yes, it's another coffee shop -- with sandwiches -- opening "as soon as May 18," says son and co-owner Brian Gilbert.

"It's a form of insanity," Minenna says, laughing about the urge to merge with the rising coffee tide. "It must be hereditary.''

But Gilbert says downtown's tortured noon traffic may be working its own trickle-down magic for the moguls of mocha.

"It's so horrible during lunchtime that you could have one every block, and have a guaranteed audience," he says. "Because people don't want to drive and they don't want to walk more than two blocks."

Bottoms up.