Starbucks Opens First Upscale Location

Starbucks just opened the first of its 1,000 planned Reserve stores on the ground floor of the chain’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is located in a century-old building in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood, which has served as Starbucks headquarters since 1993. The Reserve store – seen as a competitor of more upscale coffee shops like Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia – includes a high end Princi bakery, full liquor bar, coffee bar, lounge areas and two fireplaces.

The Reserve stores plan to showcase the specialty, small – lot Starbucks Reserve coffee. Princi is an Italian bakery, which offers artisan breads, Italian pastries, pizza al taglio and aperitivo. After reading a poem written by Alda Merini, a friend of Rocco Princi, customers can look through a glass wall into the Princi kitchen with artisan bakers and chefs at work. According to the Seattle Times, the Reserve store is 8,100 ft., four times the size of a typical Starbucks store.

Christian Davies, vice president creative global design & innovation for Starbucks said, “When you walk into the space from the entry, you can take everything in in the sweep of an eye. We wanted people to walk through those doors and immediately find themselves in something different and unique, but they would still recognize as Starbucks.” In addition to enjoying coffee, delicious food and pastries, visitors can learn coffee’s story from bean to cup in the library full of books about the entire process.

Written by  
6 years ago
Article Tags:
· · · · ·