Columbia Center

Good morning... What can I get for you?

Rarely to do we highlight a store here on Green Apron Stories so it's a pretty special thing to do so. We look to downtown Seattle (of course) for today's special "bean".

There was a time when the Columbia Center store was the jewel for Starbucks Coffee. You couldn't attend a manager's conference without Columbia Center and University Village being recognized in one way or another. Sales... volume of customers... speed of service... cups of coffee... they had it all.

Many years later, while managing in Downtown Seattle, I got a chance to get to know some of the downtown Seattle stores first hand. To learn their nuances... their personalities. Columbia Center WAS truly a gem. I worked a few shifts there to help out the manager during team meetings and I learned so many things...

• There's a small room next to the office that houses a drip only operation. The cup display wall (that was shaped like a coffee cup funny enough) opened up to reveal a partner or two pedaling drip only for those customers on the go. The partners called this window... Vanna.
• If you look in under the counters and in the cupboards you can find several tubes that lead to nowhere. These served as the delivery system for a coffee tap system for the store. They served so much drip coffee that dosing it from large brewers through a tap system out front was the only way to go.
• 2 Full 4-group La Marzocco machines and a separate steamer were used to crank out the espresso beverages.

Forget about machines, merchandise, trinkets... this was bean and beverage heaven. If you wanted to be a barista in one of the craziest morning/lunch environments, this was/is it. So solid of a business they added another location 40 floors up.

This makes me think it might be a good idea to highlight some other downtown stores... I mean, if you're interested and all...

Enjoy the Il Giornale menu... sweet simplicity.

We'll see you tomorrow for your usual...

Pat Nerr...