I want to share a great store experience I had in Bedford, Texas!

Starbucks store 9670
2104 Airport Freeway
Bedford, TX 76022
(817) 283-6528

I was visiting Texas to meet up with a group of partners from all over that big state, and one of the group suggested that one of the best Starbucks he knew of was in Bedford, Texas.  I would note that none of my Texas friends actually work at that Starbucks, nor did that store know that we were coming by for a visit.  We drove for about thirty minutes, and ended up in this place called Bedford.  There, we found a Starbucks right off of the freeway.  I went inside and ordered Gold Coast Blend.  The register partner offered to make me a pour over, so of course I said “yes” to that.

This store is both a cafe and drive-thru location.  The cafe generally stayed a little bit slow, to moderately busy while we visited the store.  Our group plopped down with beverages, pulling two tables together, and chatting away.  I would note, it looked to me like the drive-thru stayed crazy busy.  Clearly partners were hustling to make orders, and as best as I could tell, the drive-thru really was driving a lot of business at this location.  I really enjoyed the classic 1990s era interior design of this store.  One thing that is missing from the newer “repurposed”-designed Starbucks stores is the posters of the coffee stamps.  This store had a large Gold Coast Blend coffee picture over a comfy chair seating area.  Someday I would love to have some of those old posters to decorate my home!

I noticed that this store kept a supply of games handy for the cafe customers.  I even saw a small group of people playing them, but I didn’t take a picture of them.  While our group sat chatting, a barista carrying a tray came up to us and said that he was sampling Komodo Dragon paired with the reduced fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake.  I was very impressed by the active sampling.  I asked the partner, “did you come sample just because of me?” (I know that sounds silly but I was wondering if he knew – somehow – that I was writing a blog post on his store, even though that seemed very unlikely.)  He replied, with a bit of a chuckle at the silly question, “No.  We schedule some sampling into every shift.”  I was impressed that even though the drive-thru seemed to be driving the business for the store, the cafe was never overlooked.

By the way, I didn’t hear my Gold Coast Blend being called out from the bar (likely because I was pre-occupied with the conversation with my three friends) and so by the time I got up to the beverage pick up area, the drink had been sitting a while.  The barista at the bar (who I think introduced herself as “Alex”) was concerned that my coffee had been sitting for so long.  She offered to re-make it, if it had cooled off too much.  I took a sip, thanked her for the offer, and told her it was just fine. (And indeed  it was.  I feel no need to burn my tongue with my beverages.)  There is no way I would have asked her to remake a pour over, but I thought that was a touch of an elevated customer service experience.

By the way, if you happen to be in Bedford, Texas, looking for this store and can’t find it, it is possible this store might totally disappear.  One person in my group said that he heard that the building this Starbucks is in, is slated to be demolished.  Apparently Texas wants to widen the freeway that this store sits right adjacent to.  This means the building would be demolished for expansion of the freeway, and hopefully, the store will be rebuilt next to the improved freeway.

*****

Hope you enjoyed the store review!