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Italian Starbucks - wow!

feline groovy — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:21:10 GMT

I like it a latte

'The most beautiful Starbucks in the world': US coffee chain takes on Italy's espresso masters in their spiritual home with lavish new cafe in Milan

US coffee giant opening its first store in Italy in former post office in Milan serving nitro coffee and cocktails
Customers can watch beans being roasted in a huge bronze cask, eat pizza from a hand-built wood-fired oven, or drink cocktails on the mezzanine-level bar
Milan opening is first Reserve Roastery cafe Starbucks has in Europe and the chain hopes to open more stores in Milan this year to tap into lucrative Italian market
New cafe has heated marble-topped coffee bar and marks 20 years since Starbucks opened first store in Europe in London's Kings Road

September 6, 2018

US coffee giant Starbucks is taking on Italy's espresso masters with a lavish new cafe complete with nitro coffee, a heated marble-topped coffee bar, a 22ft high bronze cask, a wood-fired oven and a cocktail bar.

Starbucks is opening its first store in Italy on Friday in a cavernous former post office in the Piazza Cordusio square of Milan, where customers can watch the beans being roasted in a huge bronze cask, eat pizza from a hand-built Princi Bar wood-fired oven, or drink cocktails on the mezzanine-level bar.

In Italy, an espresso at a coffee bar is usually a quick morning or after-lunch ritual performed standing up.

Many neighbourhoods have cafes are practically on every corner, and Italians are on a first-name basis with their trusted barista.

Decades ago, Milan's coffee bars inspired the global chain's vision, bosses say.

Now Starbucks is hoping Italian clients will visit its new store, called the Reserve Roastery, for the premium brews and novelties in a country fond of its daily espresso rituals.

Italy is Starbucks' 78th global market, and the Milan opening comes 20 years after Starbucks opened its first store in Europe, which was in London in Kings Road in 1998.

The company has described the Milan store as 'the crown jewel of Starbucks global retail footprint' and it says the chain plans more cafes in Milan later this year.

Milan is also the first place where Starbucks has opened a store in its Roastery format in the untested territory of Europe.

Italians are used to marble counters for coffee bars, but Starbucks boasts that it outfitted its counter tops in the Milan store with heating so they won't feel stone cold on chill days.

The centrepiece of the Milan store is a 22ft (6.5-meter) high bronze cask, which is part of the roasting process.

The company also hopes the store's cocktail bar will be an attraction as many who work in Milan, Italy's fashion and financial capital, cherish the tradition of meeting friends or colleagues for an 'aperitivo', or pre-dinner cocktail, often in cafes.

Starbucks chief design officer Liz Muller told The Associated Press earlier this week that the company's 'not coming to Italy to teach people about coffee. This is where coffee was born'.

Instead, Muller said Starbucks 'wanted to come and bring a premium experience that is different to what people in Italy are used to'.

She described that formula as including 'many different brewing techniques and a space where we want you to stay longer and relax and enjoy'.

Starbucks first opened a Roastery in Seattle in 2014, where the US city that is home to its corporate headquarters, and a second one in Shanghai last year.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Shanus — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:25:31 GMT

@feline groovy. OMG. That’d be worth the trip alone. Thanks for the photos.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Imaoldhippie — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:29:52 GMT

and only $100 a cup! Wow how fancy.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Laura14 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:32:58 GMT

Do my people know how to do it right or do we know how to do it right?

Now if only I drank coffee...

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Shanus — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:35:27 GMT

@Imaoldhippie wrote:
and only $100 a cup! Wow how fancy.

@Imaoldhippie Plus plane ticket. Lol

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

feline groovy — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:36:35 GMT

@Shanus: start planning your vacation in Italy, but don't tell DH the real reason you must hit Milan. ;-)

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Nataliesgramma — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:37:15 GMT

WOWSA

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

feline groovy — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:38:42 GMT

@Laura14: I don't drink coffee either, but do like the scent of it brewing. Tea has always been my hot beverage of choice.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Shanus — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:38:55 GMT

@feline groovy wrote:
@Shanus: start planning your vacation in Italy, but don't tell DH the real reason you must hit Milan. ;-)

@feline groovy No way, he’d push me away to get first in line. Guess who had to have a photo taken standing in front of the first Starbuck’s in Seattle...DH. 😂

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Laura14 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:41:19 GMT

@feline groovy High five tea sister!

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Caaareful Shopper — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:58:46 GMT

I grind my coffee beans every morning, and make my own coffee specialty drinks on the weekends. That's how much I love my coffee (only one a day though). It's my peaceful ritual I gift myself before news of the day or driving into work. So this Starbucks in Milan would be like a wonderful dream!

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

sunshine45 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:56:16 GMT

i would LOVE to get one of these here in the usa.......well, more than one!

by the way tea drinkers, you may already know this but starbucks does brew tea also!

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

feline groovy — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:58:28 GMT

this

alone

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

blackhole99 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 19:22:46 GMT

It's really something, but my husband makes better coffee than Starbucks.LOL No really.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

ShowMe — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 19:34:11 GMT

We know where the rich go now in Milan. It is simply beautiful. Know I'll never be going there. But, it would be fun to see it.

Guess they don't have any problems there with people handling food items like we do here. Noticed no one was wearing gloves when handling food items.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

sunshine45 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 19:54:04 GMT

i will have to take a closer look next time @ShowMe, but i do believe the workers in our starbucks do not wear gloves and use some type of paper to place the baked goods onto a plate or into a bag.....or they use tongs.

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

ShowMe — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:07:46 GMT

@sunshine45 wrote:
i will have to take a closer look next time @ShowMe, but i do believe the workers in our starbucks do not wear gloves and use some type of paper to place the baked goods onto a plate or into a bag.....or they use tongs.

@sunshine45.......there are 2 Starbucks close by to where I live. Have only been in one....one time..... Don't know if they wear gloves there or not. Someone had given me a gift card, and I took one of my friends there to use it....still have some bucks left on it. That was some time ago, so hope it is still good.

Did you notice they use "nitro"? Read something about that, and that scares me.....

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Oznell — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:32:22 GMT

Makes me happy just to know it is there, ha. How beautiful. Everything to do with coffee is so pleasing, and serenity inducing. I bet that place smells WONDERFUL.

And the people-watching would be so much fun, with all the high-style Milanese dropping in, maybe after an evening at La Scala....

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

Ms tyrion2 — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 22:43:58 GMT

Starbucks is one of my happy places. Love the coffee. Love the sous vide egg bites.

This one, in Milan, would be a VERY happy place! 💕

Re: Italian Starbucks - wow!

tipsy — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 23:13:41 GMT

@blackhole99 wrote:
It's really something, but my husband makes better coffee than Starbucks.LOL No really.

I believe you!

I know I'm in the minority but I prefer Dunkin' Donuts. And the Italian Illy coffee is so good!