Starbucks

[Toliver]

I was surprised to not find a (generic) Starbucks topic in this forum. 

Starbucks is trying to expand its repertoire:

"Starbucks opens its first bakery with more to come"

Quote

Starbucks announced it is opening its first high-end Italian bakery at its Starbucks Reserve Roastery location in its hometown of Seattle on Tuesday. Next, it will bring the concept to Shanghai, followed by Milan, New York, Tokyo and Chicago.
The Princi bakery and cafe will feature Italian-inspired sandwiches, breads and other baked goods. Starbucks announced last year it was taking a stake in the Princi business and has made no secret of its desire to expand its business into other parts of the day after the morning coffee rush fades.

The move seems like a no-brainer. 

The food Starbucks currently offers (reheats, is more like it) is pretty bad. Whatever food they offer is usually small and quite expensive. 

At least they got the brilliant idea of having someone else run the thing since what they're currently doing isn't working.

Is there any eG'er up in Seattle that can report on this new venture? I'd be interested to hear more about the menu offerings of the bakery.

[heidih]

I will confess to being quite fond of the spinach-feta wraps.  Whole wheat wrap with egg white, spinach, and feta. Heated to crisp up edges and melt cheese. With 2 packets of their sriracha I;m good to go for hours and happy.

[pastrygirl]

22 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Is there any eG'er up in Seattle that can report on this new venture? I'd be interested to hear more about the menu offerings of the bakery.

 

Yes!  I very rarely go to Starbucks, emergencies only, but the new Reserve Roastery is just down the hill from the kitchen I use, so I'll try to remember to stop and check it out next time I'm going past it.

 

24 minutes ago, Toliver said:

The food Starbucks currently offers (reheats, is more like it) is pretty bad. Whatever food they offer is usually small and quite expensive. 

 

This may or may not change.  They obviously can't add a bakery to every store; if they decide the one bakery can deliver to other stores, now everything has to be baked several hours earlier so it can be packed and delivered in the wee hours before stores open and your 3pm coffee break features pastry made last night at 8pm & getting pretty close to day-old.  Frozen product baked off throughout the day has all the potential to be good.

 

Recruitment might not be as hard for SBUX as for other restaurants since they can offer benefits, but I don't think moving baking in-house will necessarily make things larger or less expensive.   Minimum wage for a large employer is $15/hr.  We do have lots of good bakeries here, so talent is available but not cheap.

[JeanneCake]

The other bakery they had doing their pastries a while ago... they bought them out, used them for a few months (a year maybe?) then shut it down and everyone (at the bakery) lost their jobs. Hopefully the Italians are careful about who they are getting involved with ....