Starbucks is preparing to open the world's largest premium coffee shop with a roastery.
A new establishment in the Starbucks Reserve Roastery format will appear in Chicago. The official opening is scheduled for November 15, 2019.
A coffee shop with a restaurant and an exclusive bar will open on Magnificent Mile, one of the most prestigious streets near the city center, surrounded by the main tourist and shopping traffic. The grandiose Starbucks Reserve Roastery will occupy about 4,000 square meters in a glass building on the corner of North Michigan Avenue and Erie Street.
Crate & Barrel founder Gordon Sehgal was involved in designing the space for the opening of the coffee shop. In preparation for the launch, the company retained numerous architectural details of the building's striking 1990 façade. First announced two years ago, the opening of the flagship coffee shop of the American giant will be one of the main events in the market. The scale of the coffee shop, which is about to open, is also evidenced by the fact that about 200 employees will work in it.
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery will span four floors and feature the Reserve's own roastery, interactive tours that involve visitors in the roasting and brewing process, and unique drinks inspired by Chicago culture and traditions. The establishment will include a full-scale kitchen for the preparation of exclusive desserts, pizzas and salads, managed by the Italian bakery Princi.
For now, Starbucks is keeping most of the details of the new project under wraps, but it is already known that the new Chicago Reserve Roastery will be serving specialty cocktails designed by local mixologists in the evenings at the new Chicago Reserve Roastery. Thus, the coffee house will act as one of the points of attraction for entertainment and sightseeing of the city at a later time of the day. Flagship Starbucks will be open from 7 am to 11 pm on weekdays, and on Fridays and Saturdays the doors of the coffee house will be open until midnight.
Chicago will be only the sixth city on the Reserve Roastery map - Starbucks began to develop its unique format in terms of scale and experience with the opening of the first roastery in his native Seattle in 2014. Later, similar institutions opened their doors also in Milan, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai. The company says it currently has no plans to open any new Reserve Roasteries, so the flagship location in Chicago could be the last in this special Starbucks format. The global network under the management of the company today includes about 30,000 coffee shops, more than 14,000 of which are located in the United States.
