Favorite Starbucks Location
 

Hi!

I know there was a thread about ´favorite coffeehouses´some months ago but i thought it might be interesting to focus on our biggest mainstream coffee-company.

The coffee may not always be that spectacular, but many of the stores are great spots for urban-people-watching and some offer nice views too.

My top-three so far (i´m only 19 so i´m not a real frequent traveler yet):

Tokyo, Japan
-Starbucks Omotesando / Harajuku
it´s a modern glass/steel stand-alone building on a small street running parallel to the famous ´omotesando´and it´s combined with a Yahoo-internet cafe. The location is awesome. almost no traffic (coz the street is so small) and mostly cool and creative Tokyo-style teenagers all over the place. very colorful and entertaining, a real japanese experiene.

Berlin, Germany
-Starbucks Hackesche Höfe / Berlin Mitte
located within the ´Hackesche Höfe´buildings. IMO the surrounding area is currently the ´soho of berlin´. that means there are many cool restaurants, bars, shops as well as galleries all over the place. and there is this ´global´ cosmopolitan feeling. the store itself is nicely done with a great upper floor seating area, where you can sit on pillows placed on a long windowsill.

Vienna, Austria
-Starbucks Kärtnerstrasse / Oper
-directly opposite the famous ´Sacher´Hotel and Cafe. the location is great. from the upper floor seating area you can enjoy some nice views of the Kärtnerstrasse, Ringstrasse and the Vienna Opera House. I like the atmosphere. It´s the perfect mixture of good old viennese coffeehouse-tradition with the contemporary, relaxed Starbucks-way.

and i also like:

-Starbucks SoHo at Spring Street, NYC (is it spring street, i´m not sure...)
-Starbucks Kowloon Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hongkong, China

Ok. Feel free to post all your favorite starbucks-spots and tell us why.

No topic for the real coffee-snobs in this forum but i hope it´s also interesting! ;)

Greetings from Austria, Tom

I like the Starbucks @ 40th and Lexington Ave. in NYC. The windows are huge, and people walk by blindly, letting you admire them from a sort-of private vantage point.

about 5-6 miles east of Honolulu, just off of 72, is my wife's favorite Starbucks.

She claims she can only get a certain oatcake at this Starbucks.

I think it is her favorite just because we are in Hawaii! ;)

Wyckoff, NJ. I can walk there from home. They start making my tall skim wet cap as soon as they see me walking across the parking lot. My drink generally is sitting by the cash register before I get there. What's better than that?

I love my local Starbucks (Denton Tap Road in Coppell) not only because it is an almost daily stop when I am in town (sometimes twice daily when I'm drinking chai in lieu of dinner) and not only because the people watching is grand (the morning soccer mom minivan brigade is hilarious as is the evening slacker rich kid social scene) and not only because they have a great wood deck out back which is a wonderful place to chat with a friend on a Saturday morning, but also because they can't seem to screw up any drink that I order and in fact, every drink I ever get always tastes better there than at any other Starbucks I go to.

The original store in Pike Place Market is the only one where the mermaid has breasts. :)

QL

As you have all posted, these are indeed good ones.

Couple of additional comments on them:

Tokyo, Japan -Starbucks Omotesando / Harajuku
In good weather the patio out back is nice and the various cafes up the road make it a worthwhile day out.

Vienna, Austria -Starbucks Kärtnerstrasse / Oper
A perfect stopping point when traversing the city. three days in Vienna included three stops here.

Starbucks Kowloon Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hongkong, China
Location is cool, and they certainly are a vivacious crew.

...Denton Tap Road in Coppell (TX)...
Been there too. A great example of a neighborhood Starbucks.

The original store in Pike Place Market ...
Mecca? Nah, but still cool to visit.

My all time favorite is in Roppongi in Tokyo. There are several in the Roppongi District, but the staff at the store that gets the Roppongi designation are far and away the most cohesive crew I have ever seen.

Running a close second is the West Walk store in Roppongi Hills (the building in which I work).
Number 1 in sales for the first month we opened the project, and still has an average customer count per hour that cannot even be imagined by most places. They still manage to remember drinks of regulars, smile and maintain a great feeling.

Mike

Well, I wouldn't drink the charred swill they sell as coffee, but my favorite location is one in London (don't remember where) where you can sit and look at people in the other Starbucks across the street.

Anywhere in Seattle. Why you ask? Because nowhere else in the world have I found one that the baristas can actually pump through a 15 person line in between 5-7 minutes.

Monorail Espresso on Pike St between 5th and 6th in Seattle. Yum. My dog loves them too, since they always have a milkbone for him.

But I'm a freak and have Dunkin Donuts coffee mailed to me monthly out here. I can't stand most of the overly burnt coffee that's so popular in the PNW... so I also love the Dunkin Donuts in EWR's C terminal. I've been making a beeline to it as soon as I get off my plane now that I know it's there. ^

While I typically don't drink coffee, and even if I did, I could find better coffee elsewhere, my favorite Starbucks is actually two of them. There are two Starbucks on opposite corners of Thurlow & Robson in downtown Vancouver (BC) that are usually both full.

How two Starbucks can situate themselves so that they compete with one another (and be busy all the time) is beyond me.

Mike

Favorite Starbucks Location
 

The one I am currently in getting my Quad, Venti, Breve, No Foam, 1 Splenda Latte. ;)

I do love my Pike Place Market prepaid card. ^

I'm somewhat of a Starbucks fanatic and it's my opinion that a Starbucks is a Starbucks is a Starbucks. I vist Starbucks for three reasons:

1) Venti Mocha Frappucino Blended Coffee Drink with Whip
2) To refill my Starbucks card from my American Express Card to earn points
3) Wi-Fi access in odd places.

As far as my favorite Starbucks, it's anyone that accepts the Starbucks card (really pisses me off when I visit a store/kiosk that does't accept them and I am forced to pay cash because it's so easy to load it up once a month with my Corp. Amex and expense one receipt rather than having to expense 30 receipts per month) and anyone with Wi-Fi.

Edinburgh Scotland. Amazing second floor starbucks that looks out to see the Edinburgh Castle. Beautiful. Floor to ceiling windows and lots of cushy chairs.
Possibly the largest Starbucks location I've seen.

Mike, Starbucks is not a franchise that sells its name and products to franchisees who run its stores. It owns most of its locations outright so when there are two locations at the same intersection, all of the money is going to the company. It is not a case of one franchisee pitted against another. That happens with Subway and other chains though.

Getting back to the original topic, I like the Starbucks on Columbus Avenue near Lincoln Center in NYC because of the nice couches. However, it is not a comfortable as it used to be. Have others noticed there are fewer couches and places to lounge and more hard chairs now?