Starbucks Puts a Double Shot of Hometown Flavor into Every Store

Starbucks Puts a Double Shot of Hometown Flavor into Every Store
It's not about the French roast. Nor the caramel macchiato, the lemon scones or the Elvis Costello CDs.

Starbucks' globe-storming success is about place -- creating coffee bars that feel grounded in their neighborhoods, that lure people to hang out for a wide spectrum of reasons, and that somehow make us think "Starbucks" for refreshment or conversation instead of "Tully's" or "Ben & Jerry's."

The ubiquitous Frappuccino flogger readily acknowledges its debt to Ray Oldenburg's pathbreaking book "The Great Good Place." With increasing sophistication, it's backfilling the gaping hole in American city life that Oldenburg chronicled in 1989 -- the void of informal gathering places, or "third places," apart from home and work.

Starbucks' stores are worth some architectural investigation because, unlike fast-food joints, there are real differences from one location to another -- not just in size, shape and furnishings, but in the feel of each.

This is clearly part of the company's formula: unlike Burger King, venturing into a Starbucks you haven't tried before offers the hint of adventure.

Last October, Starbucks opened a new store on Mercer Island, designed by MulvannyG2 Architecture of Bellevue in consultation with the company's in-house design staff, that promises an outright architectural epiphany.