Today (Jan., 2, 2012) is the grand opening day for the most recent Starbucks location in Seattle. It’s a beautiful 1800 square foot store in the South Lake Union neighborhood, and features a Clover, tall ceilings, friendly partners, and is slated to have beer and wine some time in the spring of this year. I dropped by today and met up with the store’s manager, Janet, who knows me already from the Olive Way Starbucks. She is absolutely wonderful. Janet is coffee-passionate, friendly, and knowledgeable.
This new store was designed in a similar vein to the Brewery Blocks Starbucks in Portland, Oregon, which is one of my favorite of the newer design styles. It has a wall made from bicycle tubes, all sourced from local businesses. I like the siren painted onto the wall. There are few things I want to point out about this store. The ceilings give you the impression you’re in a space much larger than its actual physical footprint, and Starbucks has wall murals, and/or wall art nearly all the way to the top of the ceilings. Here’s a couple of photos kind of demonstrating the tall ceilings:
This store also has a very unique design when it comes to the pastry case, and the display of the ready-to-eat bistro boxes, and other refrigerated food offerings. The pastry case is separate from the cold lunch food, which is in a case embedded into a wall. By the way, behind that wall is a very short hallway, the store’s community board, and access to the restrooms.
There already is a twitter page, in case you want to follow. The ASM, Sarah, is the store’s official twitter voice:
Twitter profile for Starbucks at Terry and Republican
I attached a number of photos below so you can tour the store. I noticed that this Starbucks has one of the copper-toned Clover machines, which I think is a very nice finishing touch. Not all the Starbucks have that style (color) of Clover, and I think it is a nice finishing touch because it matches the look of the Mastrena espresso machine.
There is a small seating area in the very back of the store behind the espresso bar area, but it was too crowded with customers for any great photos of that area. However, I just want to point out that there is a little more seating than what it looks like at first glance, when you enter in the front doors.
The mural immediately behind the pastry case wall is a gorgeous floor to ceiling custom mural made just for this location. I don’t have any great photos of it because of the narrow space and odd angle to try and photograph it. But if you do visit this store, that’s something that should not be missed!
If you want to visit, here’s the address:
Starbucks store #15407
442 Terry Avenue North
Seattle, WA
(206) 467 4945
The store is located on the corner of Terry and Republican, and not far from the South Lake Union Trolley streetcar, which appears to run almost directly in front of the store. Please come by and say hello to Janet (the store manager), Sarah (the ASM), and everyone else on this great team!
Enjoy the photos!
27 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
Oh Melody I love this store!!! Great pics- love the ceiling and the lighting. I can see hanging out in this store and feeling relaxed and welcomed. Thanks for the tour!
@Purple1 – I will come hang with you! Something about this store that is very very inviting!
BTW Melody curious as to what kind of customers would come to this store? Is it in a business district or in an area where tourists congregate?
@Purple1 – The buildings in this area are a number of the Amazon.com corporate office buildings, so I assume Starbucks is going to count on numerous Amazon.com employees to fill the store. There are a few other business too. The area is ‘south lake union’ neighborhood of Seattle, which keeps growing and growing. Felt like 20 years ago, there was just nothing there.
Beautiful beautiful store! It looks so warm even though it is such an industrial design. I even like the sign outside too…it’s different! I have not seen one store remodel (or new store) yet in Tucson. Hoping to see one sometime. And of course, I think the black and white siren mugs are absolutely gorgeous!!
Melody,
One word:
Wow!
What a great looking store – thanks for sharing Melody!
@SuzanneC and Baroosta – The store wow’ed me too!
Another good looking Starbucks. But still putting looks before function and efficiency.
Starbucks must have bought a gazillion pastry cases, back counters, and front counters years ago and just puts them in every store while the interior designers make everything else pleasing to the eye.
The product case is interesting with the middle section of cold product, like bistro boxes. Seems like the product space is relatively small, I did not see much room for mugs/tumblers/cups or other hardware. This could be dictated by the type of customer.
Melody, remember I am a retired Engineer and always look at things with a critical analytical eye. I really do enjoy your store visits.
@DadCooks – You keep me on my toes. This is a good thing. I think that the theory behind this store (and we’ll see if it pans out) is that there is going to be a large lunch business. I’ve heard that a very tiny number of stores with unusually big food sales get the new embedded refrigerated case with the idea that customer won’t bunch up near the front towards the register trying to pick out what to eat. Or something like that anyways. As I mentioned above, this clientele is expected to be business folks right and left. Office worker types. And the area doesn’t have >that< many lunch options so I can see people running from their offices and looking for a quick bite to eat at Starbucks. Amazon employees will be like 99% of the customer base. Well, that might be a huge exaggeration.
great pics Melody! thanx for the trip into this store….. it is very pretty and outstanding. (I am still not in favor of Sbux & beer &wine)..altho as I told you..from that Chi. Tribune article..the Chicago area is getting 7 of them this yr. so, we’ll see.
have been wondering (and talking w/ various partners in a few Sbux around here (off topic but….coffee) about what they will eventually do with all the Christmas blend (including the Christmas espresso and decaf…)…so many stores have SOOOO much still. I did ask: why aren’t you at least brewing it now (instead of the eternal….again..Italian roast). was told they can’t brew out of order etc. But, they all imagine..I was told…it will go on sale AGAIN and then likely they wil brew it. ??? seems crazy to me…they might be brewing this for Valentine’s day at this rate. Quite a few partners felt the BOGO for it was not promoted at all….except thru email from MSR. I think that’s part of it maybe. I don’t know…..but someone really overestimated this batch of Christmas blend! (I wish this had happened w/ Thanksgiving blend! that was gone in no time! ) sorry..big aside.
@DeniseR – We have tons of Christmas Blend in Seattle too. I always assumed that that is because we’re close to a roasting plant, and stores really stock up on whole bean. Makes me wonder what will happen with all that CB. I would assume that they want to get it out the door fast to clear up some space for blonde coffee. That would be logical. And how to do that? I would guess another sale on it. Who knows?? I wonder if this year they over-produced CB, or people just bought less of it? And it seems like, just looking around, there’s more of the regular kind than the Espresso Roast version … I kind of slightly prefer the CB that is the Esp Roast CB.
denise r and Melody — a lot of Christmas Blend still on the shelves here too, however the Decaf and Christmas Espresso Roast did sell out. I bought 6 bags of the Christmas Espresso Roast. I had bought only 1 bag of the regular. I was not pleased with it this year. To me it had a sour note and a lingering astringency. When I brewed it strong (25% more beans than I normally used) it was okay but still sub par.
My favorite Starbucks did pre-promote the BOGO for 2 days before, but even the heavy bean buyers in my morning group of regulars were only buying 2 to support their favorite Barista’s quota. Normally they would be buying 6 to 10 bags.
Melody — as I figured the demographic of the store appropriately dictates the product and layout. When they add the beer and wine they will probably do a gangbusters evening business 😉
always thanx DadC……. and Melody for your responses to the CB issue. We do have a bit less of the CB espresso roast but still ALOT! I liked last yrs better than any yr altho it’s never been my favorite. and I like the CB Espresso best. Maybe lots of people agree that this yrs was just not such a good batch. ??? If it had tasted as good as last yr (still not being my favorite), I would’ve certainly bought it on that BOGO day…I was actually buying a # that day anyway. That was really a very good deal! 2# for one??? and still, feel flat here. I don’t know, but I would assume someone in COFFEE is looking into this.
thanx you two!!!
see Melody? here is another example of this very very outstanding community online;) our communication…. our sharing.
Hmmm, maybe the flavor wasn’t quite right this year? The Aged Sumatra that was offered as a Reserve Coffee was so extremely bold, and wasn’t quite right this year. Maybe it was something with the Aged Sumatra in the CB? The extra roasting of the esp. roast may mellow it out??? Denise, I love the community here. There is a distinct community here (and distinct from other Starbucks communities like the one at MSI or other non-offiicial blogs) and I love it. Of course, I have a totally biased opinion. 😛
Wow! How beautiful! This store looks absolutely gorgeous!
Definitely looking forward to visiting the store. Thanks for the review!
SteveH – You will love it. Good to see and happy new year!
There really is a lot of CB still available around here. It seems like in years past there was less and the stores were brewing it to get rid of it by now. At some point it starts looking too old to be appealing, even at Bogo prices (many bags expire in April too).
As for this store, I really like this look (and concept). The tall ceilings are very comfortable looking. It will be interesting to see if the cold case works at this store or not. (keep us updated Melody!)
Happy New Year everyone.
Wow, such a beautiful store and some really interesting comments!
@DadCook – I was thinking about the pastry cases too… It always amazes me when I see the photos you post Melody that the US stores still display the food on the white trays. Here in the UK the white trays were abandoned at least 18 months ago – maybe as long as 2 years ago! They were replaced with black/grey slate tiles, that cover the glass and stainless steel shelving and have the food sitting directly on top, the food labels themselves are held in neat little label holders, and foods contain certain ingredients are kept seperate by black dividers that match the slates! I have to admit the way we do things now is much more fidgety and sometimes a pain to get everything sitting properly – but it does look a lot more upmarket and I think the slates would look amazing in a store like this. Remind me take a photo of our pastry layout to share with you!
As far as the Christmas Blend is concerned – we’re all out here in the UK. It’s all gone, we didn’t have a BOGO offer but we did have it half price for two specific days in december and that shifted the last of anyones stock! As far as for brewing as a drip coffee – we’ve been out since the end of December too! The strange thing is we were actually unable to order either the 250g (1/2lb) bags to sell in store, or the 1kg bags to make brewed coffee since about the 18th of December, as there was no more to be had! Kind of makes me sad that I had to turn people away yet stores on your side of the pond seem to sitting on loads of it!
Oh, and happy new year to all here at the Starbucks Melody community! 😀
I used to frequent a local coffee shop in college that served wine and beer in the evenings. It was really nice for my non coffee drinking friends to hang out with the coffee drinking friends in the evenings. It was also nice to be able to get a glass of wine or beer in a social setting that wasn’t a smoky bar. I’m excited to see how the Starbucks beer and wine stores go over in different areas. I did go to college in Wi.
Wow, Melody what a beautiful store. You guys in Seattle are really lucky, I’d love to have my morning coffee in such a nice setting. my local Starbucks (masssapequa park, NY)
really needs a style facelift but I doubt it does sales numbers that will make that happen :(. Lately I just run in get my drink and leave, the music is too loud and the atmosphere is such that I want to get out quick and enjoy my coffee and ipad news somewhere else.
Happy New Year! THanks for bringing us a taste of what Starbucks can be!
I thought the neon Starbucks “signature” looked cool on the outside over the entrance, then realized it couldn’t be neon if the store was LEED-certified. It must be LED lighting.
Still very cool.
Thank you for another great store review!
As I read the comments about the sense of community that has developed around your blog, I couldn’t help but think that your blog is an ebodiment of Howard Schultz’s belief that coffee can help to foster a sense of community.
Following along Jared’s line of thought:
StarbucksMelody, Your 4th Place
@Jared – Thank you! I love this little community here!
@DadCooks – Hahaa … I like that as a new tagline. Though I need to keep the word “unofficial” somewhere easily visible on the homepage – I think that someone at Starbucks would be irked without that (I don’t really know but I think they want it to be clear when blogs are not official Starbucks content).
I’ve never been to the South Lake Union area, although I live near Seattle, so I don’t know why I don’t go exploring sometimes.
Either way, it’s nice to hear about the new Starbucks, and it sounds like it’s full of vibrant life. If I’m in the area and am need of a caffine fix (As I am at times wont to need), I’ll check it out.