Starbucks Building Its Biggest Store Ever: ‘The Willy Wonka of Coffee’ (NYC)

KTLA ^ | April 6, 2016

[SamAdams76]

Starbucks is building its biggest-ever café in New York City.

Starbucks announced plans for a 20,000-square-foot Roastery in Manhattan. It's based on the Seattle Roastery it opened in December 2014, but even larger.

“Biggest Starbucks ever headed to N.Y.C.,” the company said in a tweet.

The Roastery is a café that also serves as a showcase for the roasting of coffee beans. A company promo shot depicts a mustachioed baristas dispensing coffee from a steampunk-style brew tap made of copper and glass. Roasters in aprons handle burlap bags and shiny vats of raw beans in another.

“Let’s create the Willy Wonka of coffee,” says Starbucks president Howard Schultz in a video on the company web site.

The company described the Roaster as “coffee as theater” with its “small batch process taking center stage.”

Starbucks plans to open the Roastery in 2018 in the trendy Meatpacking district. It will be located in a nine-story building, 61 Ninth Avenue, that’s under construction and scheduled for completion next year.

[SamAdams76]

Very, very good news for New Yorkers who like coffee.

I work in Manhattan and we always joke about how there is a Starbucks on every block. And it's true. No matter where you work in Manhattan, you can go to a nearby Starbucks when it is raining out and hardly even get wet.

This Roastery (picture here in from a Seattle location) is going to take NYC coffee to a new level.

I used to be partial to Dunkin Donuts coffee but since I started drinking my coffee black, I prefer the roasts of Starbucks. And the price of plain coffee is not that expensive at all at Starbucks. It's just that all these other people order these $7 sugary concoctions that require about 18 words to order. So it seems expensive there.

Also, I don't eat any of the food at Starbucks. Seems really overpriced and probably not that healthy for you. I always wondered about that food in the display case. Says "for display only" but it's real food! Who ends up eating that display food?

Anyway, I just go into the Starbucks for the coffee. Usually the Pike Roast. But I'll get the dark roasts on occasion. Once I have the Veranda (light) roast but I didn't find that to be their best. The Pike roast hits the spot. Sometimes I get it with a shot of espresso. But nothing fancy. Just plain steaming hot black coffee.

[ifinnegan]

That’s right.

Just coffee. Free refills.

[faithhopecharity]

since they’re apparently breaking with their norms,
maybe they’ll start including some beans with coffee flavor?

[sparklite2]

With so many people spending so much money for wildly overpriced coffee, you have to wonder if the economy is as bad as it looks out the front window.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

All they know is ‘bitter’. Typical leftists.

[ifinnegan]

I personally don’t like flavored coffee.

No sweetener either or flavored creamer.

I like 1/2 1/2.

I did like macadamia nut kona from Lion.

Do you like the flavored coffee?

[digger48]

This stuff is easier on the palate...

[TaMoDee]

Had one cup many many years ago. YUK! “Army” coffee is fine and great in comparison. (Especially after a cold rainy night on guard duty in Korea.)

[faithhopecharity]

no flavors added for me, thanks
(latte is fine, just no maple syrup, ginger, or molasses, etc.)

i DO like to taste good coffee, it should imho taste like coffee... star*ucks has zero taste to me
There are some other brands of coffee that have coffee taste

[ifinnegan]

I love maple syrup. But not in coffee.

[exDemMom]

I always wondered about that food in the display case. Says "for display only" but it's real food! Who ends up eating that display food?

They don't serve the display food! They get fresh food out of the refrigerator and heat it up for you.

[SamAdams76]

I figured that for paying customers but I always wondered what happens to the display food. Do the staff eat it or is it handed out to homeless people? Or do they really just toss it into the garbage?

[VTenigma]

Just a bigger place to burn the beans.

[exDemMom]

It would be illegal to serve food that has been sitting out at room temperature all day. They write it off and discard it.

[OldSmaj]

Good for them.

They won't be using a penny of my money for it.

Starbucks sucks and I won't drink their swill.

Tastes nasty.

If I just have to have a cup of coffee, I'll look for a McDonald's.

They suck, too, but the coffee ain't nowhere near as nasty as Starbucks.

Or that swill they serve in the Barnes and Nobles places.

Is that Starbucks, too?

If it is, then they did get a few of my pennies.

I ordered from there one time...and I assure you, it too, was the last time.

Coffee should NOT be burnt to a near crisp.

Good coffee is not bitter to the palate.

[SamAdams76]

Actually the Starbucks coffee is quite good if you drink it black with no sugar or cream. In the past, I tried putting sugar and cream to it and it was always nasty. But black, it's pretty good.

I also think McDonalds coffee will do in a pinch. But I prefer Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.

The Barnes & Noble coffee shops does use Starbucks coffee I believe. But I don't think it's officially a Starbucks.