It’s never a bad time to feature a Starbucks with a Clover brewer. As I write this blog post, there are roughly about 140 Clover brewers in Starbucks stores across the United States, and a few in Canada too. Given that there are something like 16,000 Starbucks stores world wide, that makes the 140 stores – designated to have a Clover coffee brewer and sell the full line of Reserve coffee – very special stores. I hope I don’t sound caustic saying this, but I really hope that every single one of those 140 stores appreciate and cherish what they have because I’m quite certain that hundreds, if not thousands, of company-operated Starbucks stores are a little jealous of them!
Once upon a time, I tried to catalog every single Starbucks with a Clover. I came up with this blog post here:
Where are all the Clover Starbucks stores
That list is not complete, but if you send me an email with an address of a missing Clover Starbucks, I’ll add it to the list.
This Starbucks at 295 California is in a business district, so the customer base appears to be professionals mostly. Sitting watching customers come and go reminded me a bit of being in the Columbia Tower Starbucks. It looked like it had an extremely similar group of regulars: Mostly people taking a coffee break from a busy work day and very few families, teens, or children.
I tried to stay long enough at this Starbucks to get a few good photos without too many customers in the photos. That wasn’t easy to do because the store definitely stayed busy the entire time that I was there. The line was steady. The store manager (Paula) had heard that I would be coming, and welcomed me to show off her store, and offered to do a tasting of a coffee with me. I picked the Reserve Papua New Guinea Arokara. Paula paired this with the petite salted caramel square. This was a fantastic pairing. The salt and richer caramel notes evened out and were highlighted with the Papua New Guinea. By the way, I’ve actually had the petite salted caramel square paired with a couple of different coffees, and I think that that petite is amazingly versatile. The nutty aspect of the salted caramel square works well with a lighter-bodied Latin American coffee. Paula was working on her coffee passport, and I had forgotten mine so she ran and grabbed an extra from the back for me! That was totally nice of her to do! Thank you for the coffee tasting Paula!
If you are planning a visit to this coffee-passionate store, here is the address:
Starbucks store 10251
(California & Battery)
295 California Street
San Francisco, California 94111
(415) 986 2349
If you are in San Francisco, drop by this store for a Clover cup of coffee! I took the photos below during my visit on March 16, 2011. This store is open Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.
This is the last of three blog articles about Starbucks stores in San Francisco. I have to say that my trip was a success, despite that I was there for such a short time. Here are the other two blog posts: (1) Memoirs of a 19 year-old Starbucks at 1899 Union Street and (2) the tiny Starbucks on Grant Avenue.
It’s been a long while since I’ve mentioned this, but one of my very earliest blog articles on this site was the extremely early Starbucks venture into using a Clover brewer. The marketing was for “fresh pressed” coffee without the word “Clover” on it, and had very coffee romantic-themed menus which had a nearly poetic paragraph that began, “If beans could speak…” That blog post is here: The very earliest Starbucks Clover experience: If beans could speak and the story of the black & tan.
For those who don’t remember the early 2008, “Fresh Pressed” marketing, here’s the “If beans could speak …” prose:
“If beans could speak, they’d reveal the secret of their fuller flavor in this outstandingly smooth cup. They’d tempt with the nuances of a fine wine, and whisper comparisons to their favorite chocolates and spices. But the beans only speak through the palate. So best to taste a pressed coffee yourself. And have your own silent conversation with the beans.”
Enjoy the photos!
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There are now EIGHT Starbucks Clover stores in the Chicago area! Not that long ago we only had two – so we’re movin’ on up!
I see people embracing the clover and enjoying the coffee. I still wonder how they make their decision to put them in a particular store. Melody, the pics are just great. The design in this store looks so welcoming to the customer.
I believe their are currently only two Reserve stores in Canada. One in Vancouver and the newly opened Brittnel Books Starbucks in Toronto…. Can anyone back me up on this?
@Brad B – I used the Store locator on Starbucks.com to find the 8 in Chicago (one is in a hospital). I just tried the US store locator and typed in “Toronto, Ca” and the Yonge Street store – 765 Yonge, showed up as a Clover store.
The url is: http://www.starbucks.com/store-locator
@CD: thanx for the info!!! I was unaware! I knew the Deerfield store was one of the ones that was origianlly supposed to get one and didn’t. That will be one I will sometimes use, along with Streets. There are so many stores that I feel sure would support a Clover, and definitely the ones listed (in the city). I had heard NWM hosp. had one but was finding it difficult to believe..didn’t check it out, but certianly Streeterville could support any number of Clovers. (I believe) anyway, good to know.
Beautiful store Melody! I LOVE the wall colors. The store just looks fulll and vibrant…..unlike many stores right now. Thanx for the pics!
@denise r – is the Deerfield store the one across the street from the Whole Foods and near the “poet” streets (streets with author’s poet’s names)? If so, I like that one, it’s close to a good friend’s house and we walk there sometimes.
The NWM hospital is also a 24 hour location (very few of those around here and there are times that I do like coffee past 8 or 9 pm)
Sorry to hijack this thread Melody with talk of Clover locations, etc. I agree with Denise about the colors. I also like the big windows – I like city stores with nice big windows.
I have actually had a not great experience at a too busy clover store, but you are right now that i think on it clover stores have a higher tendency to be a true third place
@purple1 – I bet it was an easy decision to put a Clover here. It’s a business district and from what I can see, adults in their 30s. 40s. and 50. and even 60s. who are sort of normal working professionals tend to be hard core coffee drinkers. At my own home store, the Frappuccino isn’t as popular as the Clover. And you have to put the Clover in a place affluent enough to support it. Probably this store had some track record of good whole bean sales and brewed coffee sales, and it’s central business location in SF makes it an easy choice.
As to store design, this store looks like one of the older styles of stores coming out of the 1990s but before the really recent wave of stores that have a”repurposed” look. I’d date this store to roughly about a decade ago in terms of its design, though I’m not really sure. It’s funny though, many of those old styles of designs from the era of about a decade ago were very functioning and appealing store designs. If you really dig through the store reviews on this blog, you’ll find that you seem the store designs over and over again. The wall art in this store looks like one of the Starbucks I featured in Austin, Texas. There was a store that I featured in Gold River, California that has the same wall art as Fourth & Seneca in downtown.
Everything comes down to the partners!
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/category/store-reviews/
@CD: the Deerfield store is the “flagship” store of Deerfield which is just east of Waukegan Rd ….actually enter off Waukegan into their parking area behind the store) and on Deerfield Rd. (which is Central if you’re coming from further east, ie: Highland Pk) so, you enter to park just south of Deerfield Rd off Waukegan. It’s pretty big (not as big as Streets) and very busy. totally would be busy with a Clover or two.
also the store where I have always found choc. covered espresso beans….I think we talked about that once. (or, not 🙂
Like I said in my tweet, I wonder what the long term strategy is for the Clover. If the goal is to have them in most stores eventually. The reason I ask is because I live in Miami and have gone to the South Beach store just to try the Clover coffee (when they had a short run of Jamaica Blue Mountain). It was great and a fun experience, but I was surprised that the barristas didn’t promote it more.
The Clover is a great example that Starbucks really cares about the product they are producing. That is why McDs and other places can come out with their “premium” brew and Starbucks will still do well and has a loyal customer base.
Look forward to seeing what where it goes in the future.
Melody I love your last line of the comment to me. It is beyond reality when you say that everything comes down to the partner. I could write on and on about my feelings re this and since this is a clover thread will not. Re the clover- I too wonder how many more stores will get them. My local store is both in a residental and business area so I think it would support a clover.
This store used to be a Terrazafone Italia store, so the coffee heritage is legit… it got the standard Starbucks design from whenever the Italia stores were mass-converted to Starbucks (2005?) Glad to hear that Paula is still on top of her game. Notice the unique stand-up bar you won’t find in many Starbucks!
I hadn’t really thought about the Clover machines until coming across the blurb in Onward about the acquisition of Coffee Equipment Company.
It seems a little strange to me that a struggling cast-strapped Ballard-area startup could sell 265 machines in 2 years, yet $10 billion Starbucks has only shipped out 140 in three years since the acquisition?
Perhaps all the talk of denying the competition access to the machine was true?
@Karl,
While it’s possible that the slow rollout is about “denying the competition access” but could it also have to do with sourcing/prepping/roasting specialty coffees?
I think one of the “real” reasons we have our daily Pike Place Roast is the fact that it’s easier and cheaper for Starbucks to brew, package and sell one mass mid-tier coffee to all of their retail outlets instead of all of the specialty blends they used to offer up on a regular basis.
Given the scale of Starbucks, Clover is a great high end addition, but are they geared and equipped to really launch the Clover offering (machine AND specialty coffees) on a larger scale?
Perhaps, like AppleTV, it’s just a “hobby.”
I know that store, I stopped there on my way to Chinatown for Gong Xi Fa Ci, New Years celebration. Grabbed a sammy and a vanilla scone. They were straight up busy yet so welcoming. I miss SF.
I wish that we had a reserve store here. It’s Arizona… Big place. A fairly large population. A LOT of Starbucks here so there must be coffee drinkers. It isn’t like we are in the high desert where the nearest neighbor can’t be seen from the house…
Perhaps one day. 🙂
You rock my socks Melody! I had my first Clover at this store when I read one of your blogs about a year ago. I was so excited that we finally had one within driving distance, I made my cousin go down there to experience it with me. What a cool little store it was. I loved the array of “comfy chairs” for it being such a small-ish store, very cozy.