Starbucks
Coffee shop · Pike Place Market ·
Historic coffeehouse offering signature roasts and exclusive merchandise
Historic coffeehouse offering signature roasts and exclusive merchandise
"Opened in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl, this first Starbucks shop—named by Bowker—didn’t serve drinks but sold coffee beans sourced from Peet’s along with tea and spices. Bowker kept his ad-agency day job and worked in the store on weekends, even drumming up early publicity by sending free beans to a Seattle Times columnist." - Harry Cheadle
"Lying is wrong, which means it’s our moral obligation to tell you that the “first” Starbucks is not the first at all. That one was demolished in the ‘70s. So those hordes of people waiting for a photo op while clutching frozen blended sugar water? They’ve all been scammed. But we’ll give it to Starbucks’ marketing team—“Come visit our second-ever location” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nothing at Pike Place Market feels as miserable as standing in line for nearby Piroshky Piroshky while getting yelled at, but this line’s a close second. How fitting." - Aimee Rizzo
"I trace modern American specialty coffee in part to the tiny Pike Place shop opened in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker, where the first sale—a pound of Sumatran beans for $5.36—was celebrated with a bottle of white wine and the business primarily sold beans, spices, and brewing gear. That original cafe (at 2000 Western Avenue) grew into an importing and roasting company, expanded to a half-dozen Seattle cafes by the late 1980s, and after being sold to Howard Schultz became the global juggernaut with more than 30,000 locations and a sprawling SoDo HQ; over the years this growth has produced a delicious tension with independent specialty coffee—from early partnerships and product buys to later copycat design cues and mass-market rollouts like cold brew and the flat white." - Jordan Michelman
"After an employee tested positive for COVID-19, I learned that the Starbucks at First Avenue and University Street—one of the chain’s “Reserve” outposts—closed Friday while the company initiated an immediate deep clean following local health guidelines; officials said further preventative cleaning has already been conducted and the store will be staffed by partners with no known impact from COVID-19. The cafe was still closed as of late Sunday but hoped to reopen Monday morning; the employee is isolating at home and reportedly feeling well, and it is unknown whether other employees at this location have been tested. This is Starbucks’s first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus." - Gabe Guarente
"I encountered epic lines at the faux-'original' Starbucks in Pike Place Market and felt that waiting just to see old signage and order a mocha you can get elsewhere may not be worth the effort." - Eater Staff