News
Starbucks unveils Reserve Roastery Chicago
November 13, 2019
Starbucks Coffee Company is opening its sixth Starbucks Reserve Roastery Friday, and this one is on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Spanning five floors and 35,000 square feet of retail space, it's the chain's largest immersive coffee experience to date, according to a company press release.
"Over the past five years, we have created the ultimate immersive experience around all-things-coffee in spectacular Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in flagship cities around the world," CEO Kevin Johnson, said in the release. "These Roasteries amplify the Starbucks brand, serve as innovation hubs, and create experiences for millions of customers around the world."
The Roastery, which employs 200 people, is a working coffee roastery where roasters will small-batch roast Starbucks rarest single-origin coffees and blends called Starbucks Reserve. The coffee roasted in Chicago is served exclusively to visitors of the location, available in handcrafted beverages as well as freshly scooped whole bean coffee.
It also includes a variety of food and beverage experiences, including coffee bars, nitrogen gelato, a cocktail bar and a Princi bakery.
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In addition to a menu of classic cocktails and a selection of local Chicago beer and wine, the Arriviamo bar menu features exclusive specialty cocktails made with Starbucks Reserve coffee and tea that nod to the culture and traditions of Chicago. Submitted |
Coffee Bars
There are three main coffee bars at the Roastery, which offer seven brewing methods, including espresso, pour over, coffee press, siphon, Chemex, Clover and cold brewing.
Starbucks Reserve Coffee Bar: Visitors can use the reserve coffee bar on the main level, where baristas are crafting classic espresso beverages such as cappuccino, latte and cortado.
Experiential Coffee Bar: The third floor is home to the experiential coffee bar, which provides customers the opportunity to immerse in the art, science and theater of coffee. It features elevated brew methods and pairings, as well as specialty roastery creations and brew comparison flights.
Barrel-Aged Coffee Bar: The barrel-aged coffee bar is found on the fourth floor and showcases a variety of spirit-free coffee beverages whose beans have been carefully aged in barrels. Here, visitors can explore a menu of cocktail-inspired coffee creations exclusive to the Chicago roastery, including the Smoked Cold Fashioned (a lightly sweetened whiskey barrel-aged cold brew with aromatic bitters, smoked tableside), Minted Cold Brew (whiskey barrel-aged cold brew, shaken with mint syrup and served over pebble ice) and more.
Nitrogen gelato
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago is the only Starbucks location in the U.S. to offer on-demand liquid nitrogen gelato. Designed to pair with Starbucks Reserve coffee, nitrogen gelato is mixed by hand, according to the release. It previously debuted at the Milan Roastery in September 2018.
Arriviamo cocktail bar
The Arriviamo Bar is a destination for customers looking for a carefully crafted cocktail, according to the release. Located on the fourth floor, it features raditional and unique cocktails created by local mixologists Julia Momose, Annie Beebe-Tron and Rachel Miller. In addition to a menu of classic cocktails and a selection of local Chicago beer and wine, the menu features specialty cocktails made with Starbucks Reserve coffee and tea that nod to the culture and traditions of Chicago. They include:
Roastery Boilermaker: A Chicago riff on the classic beer and a shot, this cocktail is inspired by a Stiegl Radler and includes Starbucks Reserve Cold Brew, Koval Four Grain Whiskey, local favorite Malort, grapefruit bitters and a sidecar of Rhine Hall Bierschnapps.
Pour Over Bijou: An ode to Chicago's stunning architecture, particularly Louis Sullivan's jewel box style, this classic cocktail pour-over features Nikka Coffey Gin, Carpano Bianco, Green Chartreuse, and Liquore Strega extracted through Starbucks Reserve Coffee.
Lake Shore: Inspired by icy paletas, this cocktail offers a taste of Chicago summer that's good all year round, with Teavana Zen Clouds Oolong, El Tesoro Añejo Tequila, mango yogurt syrup, mango popsicle, lime juice, lime zest, and sea salt tincture.
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A Princi bakery on the fourth floor offers breads, cornetti and focaccia, pizza and salads, plus cakes and tarts. |
Princi
The artisanal boutique bakery and cafe founded by Italian baker Rocco Princi is the exclusive food purveyor at Starbucks Reserve locations, offering on-site baking of breads, cornetti and focaccia, pizza and salads, plus cakes and tarts. A full menu of items will be available on the second floor Princi bakery, while select items will also be available throughout the Roastery for customers looking to pair their coffee with a savory or sweet bite.
Exclusive to the Chicago Roastery will be a bakery conveyor that has been designed by Starbucks to transport fresh baked goods from the Princi bakery on the second floor, to the Starbucks Reserve Coffee Bar on the main level, according to the release.
The design
The design of the Chicago Roastery was inspired by the Chicago landmark and the city itself, said Jill Enomoto, vice president of roastery design & concept for Starbucks.
"We embraced the building's natural light, married it with shades of classic Starbucks greens and intentionally wove in design features to encourage customer exploration and highlight the love and respect we have for coffee," she said in the release.
In a nod to the city's history, artwork from local Chicago artists that tell stories and encourage customers to explore can be found throughout the building's five floors. Customers can also purchase limited-edition merchandise from Chicago-based visual artist Mac Blackout to take home with them.
