Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Mecca on Pike Place
Friends and family know that I'll always grab an opportunity to spend, or kill, some time in a Starbucks doing work or blogging or just reading. Now, in towns where there are a lot of European and Japanese cars with "Support Your Local Everything" bumper stickers the self-consciously hip disapprove of Starbucks in roughly the same tone they use to deny they watch television, but I do not seek the approval of these people. Starbucks is a great company that has transformed the American public space for the better; where before there were really only the corner tavern and the (now largely vanished) drug store counter, today there is Starbucks, a comfortable place for conversation or to be alone in a crowd. So I've been going to Starbucks virtually every day since one opened across from my apartment in Chicago in the early '90s, and expect to keep doing so.
Anyway, I am Seattle for one day. I popped awake at 5:30 or so, and decided to make the haj to the original, foundational Starbucks in the Pike Street market. I was not disappointed. Not only did it retain its modest, pre-corporate appearance, but it has preserved the original mildly NSFW sign.
There were no pastries inside, and no chairs to sit on.
The original Starbucks was so ordinary that nobody would have believed it would be the fountainhead of a new American public space. That idea did not spring naturally from high-quality coffee or naked mermaid breasts. No, it took hard-core corporate marketing to do that.
8 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed May 14, 10:17:00 PM:
The place to get a pastry is at the Russian bakery a couple of doors down! A Moscow roll or a apple cinnamon roll...mmmm.
By , at
Wed May 14, 11:02:00 PM:
Not to put to big a shine on it, but the two guys that started Starbucks learned about coffee from Peet, who founded the Peet's coffee chain in Berkeley CA.
I have no geopolitical issue with Starbucks. They're successful? Great!
But if you want a really great, fresh tasting cup, with no burnt flavor, I can recommend Peets, brewed fresh in their stores. You'll never go back.
By 
rleavengood, at
Wed May 14, 11:12:00 PM:
I live in Seattle and would have enjoyed an opportunity to buy the great erudite, Tigerhawk, a cup of java from Starbucks. I really enjoy your blog and several family members read it now. Are you still here, probably not.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu May 15, 01:14:00 AM:
And I'm now stationed at Fort Lewis. Grr.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu May 15, 09:23:00 AM:
Sorry to have missed you guys! I am in fact at SeaTac now. I was going to fly home on the redeye Wed night, but pushed it over to this morning.
I flew out at the last minute to be with my sister's family while she had surgery at Swedish Hospital, and the surgery went longer than anticipated. Now I'm on my way home again. Next time I'll try to let people know with a little advance notice!
By , at
Fri May 16, 11:16:00 PM:
Wasted money dude..go sit in a library .. but easily it's too late for that as now Starbucks is part of your being, something you tell friends and even bloggers about. The thrill of an absurdly overpriced cup of joe.
What next trendy absurdity will you latch on to for comfort and love?
By , at
Fri May 16, 11:19:00 PM:
We need you in San Fransisco you animal. We have stools here we push in all the time.
By vanderleun, at
Sat May 17, 09:52:00 AM:
Again, not the original Starbucks but one they sell that way to the tourists. What you were in was Starbucks number 6.
Original was about a block south.
But you should enjoy.
