Or maybe it’s neither? Perhaps this is just what the future of specialty coffee looks like, an increasingly blurry line between independent coffee culture and corporate coffee progress. Walking around the carefully polished preview, before the crowds descend, it was easy to catch reflections of both possibilities in the acres of chrome, teak, and copper. You, dear reader, should visit this space and see it for yourself. It could also be an overwrought flop with fundamental conceptual problems. This shining new jewel in Starbucks’ crown could be a bold new leap for specialty coffee as a whole. As with all such changes, there are many pros and cons, with an insistent drive for development thrumming underneath. Starbucks’ gargantuan new shrine to craft maximalism opens Friday, December 5th amidst an influx of new condo construction and a radically changing retail landscape on the Hill. High-end coffee has changed a lot in those five years, and so has Seattle. Sprudge was founded in 2009 less than 3 blocks from here, in the Stumptown Coffee location on Pine Street, one of the many independent coffee houses that helped make Capitol Hill the epitome of desirable Seattle cool. Starbucks was founded in 1971 just 9 blocks away from the new roastery, down the slope of Seattle’s cityscape towards the sea. Attending the press preview for the brand new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, located on the corner of Pike & Melrose in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, was a peculiarly full-circle experience.
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