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The brand-new Roy Street Coffee & Tea, open since November, is a unique prototype for a café concept from Starbucks. In addition to the typical coffee and espresso drinks under the Starbucks brand, now beer and wine are being poured as well. Yes, that's right: You can now upgrade from a Venti Mocha to a Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel or Silver Cap Brut. Many Washington and Oregon wines are on the wine list too. Specialty beers, ranging from Chimay Blue to Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA, are available as well. All to be sipped while listening visiting musicians or watching the monthly film series.
It's a move to bring Starbucks up a notch as they struggle to take the lead over other coffee chains like Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dunkin Donuts, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and even McDonald's, where the line for a cup of joe is only getting longer -- and the competition steeper.
Roy Street Coffee & Tea appears to be much like the experimental restaurants Starbucks launched in the San Francisco Bay Area during 1999, called Circadia. The eateries only lasted a short while but during their peak were much like "Central Perk" on the television show "Friends." Singing songwriters performed acoustically; patrons could order salads or sandwiches or pasta dishes; beer and wine were served, and the Starbucks coffee drinks were there as well.
Coffee and tea cuppings each day (at 2 p.m.) at Roy Street strive to dole out a little education to customers who can also elect to drink their coffee from a more sophisticated brewing system, such as the Clover, manual pour-over, Synesso or French press.
But one of the more truly exciting changes is Starbucks' commitment to being green at Roy Street: low-flow toilets and faucets; LED lamps; and low- or no-VOC paints, finishes and adhesives. Insulation inside the walls is a combination of post-consumer recycled glass and rapidly renewable materials.
Upcycling is part of it too. Most of the furnishings were bought from local vintage and antique stores instead of big-box wholesalers (the pieces get a bit of reupholstering with fabric acquired from worn-out pieces at other Starbucks locations). The front doors were salvaged. Slate from a local high school, combined with steel from a local shipyard, is now the bar. And instead of ordering a bunch of track lights, Starbucks worked with local artists to create custom light fixtures, or rewired others found in salvage shops.
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4-06-2010 @4:33AM irenelenna06 said... Our favorite is 4 Seasons wine from California http://bit.ly/bA2MFV
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4-06-2010 @2:28PM Darcy Richards said... Great idea Starbucks! Starbucks has a great atmosphere to add beer and wine to their venue. I hope they add it to my area soon!
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4-06-2010 @2:39PM Rebecca said... Now, all they have to do is hire someone who knows how to make a good cup of coffee instead of the "burnt bean express" they serve now
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4-06-2010 @3:13PM Greg said... Just one more sign that even Starbucks recognizes how much their brand has become a liability.
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4-06-2010 @3:16PM Deborah said... I love Starbucks!
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4-06-2010 @3:17PM steve r said... change the nam from starbucks to fourbucks more realistic right???
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4-06-2010 @4:58PM Lori said... Agreed fourbucks is more like it
4-06-2010 @3:38PM kathybigler said... don't care what they do they cannot compete with mcdonalds or burgerkings coffee prices and it is good coffee. i never liked starbucks, coffee is to strong for me and always taste like burnt beans
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4-06-2010 @3:47PM BUZZY said... My gripe is that I can never get a BREWED CUP of COFFEE after 12:00pm and no one wants to work in order to brew me a cup of COFFEE like they did in the 70's and 80's. After all it is a COFFEE PLACE and they made all of there money making COFFEE. I will go elsewhere until they decide to make a good cup of COFFEE. No wonder people are getting COFFEE at McDonals. YA THINK?
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4-06-2010 @3:55PM MARI said... SOOOOOOOOOOO!
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4-06-2010 @4:12PM doda said... Where's the excitement?
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4-06-2010 @7:53PM stan sirgutz said... more drunk drivers medical pot next
4-06-2010 @4:28PM Cheryl said... What Starbuck's fails to realize is it's not the "fare" they offer, it's the price. This is the bottomline. People can make coffee or buy it at a fast food restaurant much cheaper than Starbuck's. Yeah, if you've got money and want to overspend on coffee everyday, go ahead. But most of us would like to save money these days. And you can't do that buying Starbuck's which isn't very good to begin with. Their "regular" cup of coffee is about the best they have. And that's still to expensive. I don't go there any more.
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4-06-2010 @4:39PM Becky said... Forget Starbucks.I don't even consider them baristas being that everything is computerized. The coffee there is hit or miss pending which person is foaming or trying to make foam (usually it is scalded milk or the foam disapates in seconds. .I rarely used to get the same oder made right. try to aviod SB unless it is the only recourse. True coffee people are Peet's and Stumptown Coffee. Looks to me that SB is copying Peet's looks. Oh, well.....get's that is flattery to Peet's!
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4-06-2010 @4:57PM Willett said... ALCOHOL AND GUNS....................HMMM
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4-06-2010 @4:59PM David S. said... For people whining about Starbucks prices, get a life. You can get a plain coffee there for little to no more than anywhere else: Dunkin Donuts, White Castle, you name it. Fancier drinks cost more, yes. These same people complaining about prices of coffee are the same ones who likely put out tons of money for other things some people think are stupid. Move on.
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4-06-2010 @10:57PM NoQuarter said... @stever Yea Fourbucks sounds like the right name. Like I tell my wife all the time, "you know why they call it a lattee dont you? Because it costs a Lattee money.
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4-06-2010 @5:26PM Windell Courson said... I think they are making a mistake by introducing alcohol into the business. Can the young people that work there even sell alcohol? Somehow to me the aroma of coffee and wine/beer don't mix. They are starting on the slippery road to mediocrity.
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4-06-2010 @5:52PM charles said... uh oh - now folks carrying concealed firearms for self protection cannot enter a starbucks cause they serve wine
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4-06-2010 @5:59PM Harriet Needleman said... I love the idea! Please bring it to Vegas.
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