Store Spotlight: Chicago's Starbucks Reserve Roastery

While certainly a tourist attraction, Chicago’s Starbucks Reserve Roastery is not your mother’s Starbucks. Located on the Magnificent Mile, Starbucks Reserve Roastery opened in November 2019 as the coffee giant’s sixth Reserve format, joining locations in Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York and Tokyo – although the Chicago location takes the cake for being the largest.Spanning five floors and 35,000 square feet of an old Crate & Barrel building, the roastery serves as an “immersive coffee experience,” as Starbucks calls it, that showcases the craft of coffee.Since it has dimmed lights, contemporary furniture, an industrial aesthetic and a neutral/warm color scheme, one would expect a relaxing and cozy feel. But it’s a tourist attraction with nearly 200 employees including roasters, baristas, bakers and mixologists, so like the typical Starbucks in the morning, it draws in swarms of people every day. And although it’s a little cozy, it is by no means relaxing. In fact, one overheard conversation during my visit was a frantic woman exclaiming “this place doesn’t relax me at all.”While carrying that industrial appearance throughout the store, each floor serves up a different experience. The main floor includes a Reserve coffee bar, the second floor has a bakery and cafe, the third an experiential coffee bar, the fourth a cocktail bar and the fifth a small roof terrace, closed during the cold months. Some pillars serve as navigational tools and offer information to help guide customers.Regardless of the floor you’re on, everything is on display. From the food, booze, coffee, artwork and merchandise, it’s presented artistically. Gondola displays are common and offer a clean space for vendors, primarily local – like Chicago pastry chef Uzma Sharif of Pakistan-inspired Chocolat Uzma confection shop in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Her handcrafted chocolates are showcased in a clear, enclosed case on a dedicated gondola on the first floor. Shelf signs and cards help tell a story or describe a flavor, give product info, and tout the vendor/artist and often the products’ exclusivity to the roastery. Many items are made specifically for this Starbucks location.Not just inspired by local greatness, the roastery also serves up international flavors, including on the fourth floor where the Italian-inspired Arriviamo cocktail bar operates and offers a selection traditional and unique cocktails, all developed by local mixologists, as well as beer, wine and barrel-aged coffee beverages.That fourth floor’s merchandising follows the barrel-aged theme with dedicated gondola displays stocking packages of coffee aged in barrels and classic-looking merch like Whisky glasses and even apparel hanging on racks.On the second floor, customers can feed their Italian hunger at Princi, the boutique bakery and cafe founded by Italian baker Rocco Princi. It is the exclusive food purveyor at Starbucks Reserve locations, offering fresh baked breads, sandwiches, cornetti (Italian croissants), focaccia, pizza, salads, and cakes and tarts.Interestingly, customers can get Princi on the main level too, through a conveyor that transports fresh baked goods from the second to first floor, a feature unique to Chicago’s location. Customers can watch the wheels turn on both levels through clear cases.Lining nearly the entire perimeter on multiple floors, horizontal shelves stock bags of Starbucks’ Reserve coffee near messages and signs on the walls that depict information on things like its sustainable sourcing practices and the Reserve roastery footprint itself.View the full photo audit from the Path to Purchase Institute's visit, here.

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