Starbucks

One of the few locations with extremely friendly staff. Decent amount of space. I came here earlier in the week to have some mint tea and work on my zine.

Wow, good to know that there’s a Starbucks here. At the edge of a parking lot, out of all places.
Parking is extremely plentiful, since the place is part of, well, a parking lot.
The place was surprisingly packed on a Sunday. There was a giant lineup that took up half the store. Because of the L-​shaped layout, there actually aren’t too many seats here, surprisingly enough. With that said, there are a few armchairs here. The large bay windows allow for a nice serene view of. the parking lot. I could feel my heart rate slowing down to a zen-​like rate.
The classic chai tea latte I had was actually quite good.
The one unique thing about this location, besides the parking lot bit? The giant wooden Starbucks logo bolted to the wall. This thing really is something. It’s big enough to crush people if it ever fell down. I couldn’t help but stare at it while drinking my tea.

Ok… you know a brand has some staying power when it can survive in a parkade.
Though i’m not usually a fan of the ‘Bucks, it does have one very serious thing going for it: guaranteed comfy chairs with a strong wifi connection. I’m not sure if you’ve ever wandered up and down Marine Drive for four hours on a work day while your car is being detailed, but folks, this is a rarity in these parts. But i’ve never seen a Starbucks quite like this one — it’s actually tucked IN the parkade on the second floor — meaning it’s big, lofty bay windows look out onto concrete… and cars. It’s bizarre.
But location aside, it still seems to be doing a booming business. Here’s the cliff notes:
If you’ve been to one Starbucks, you’ve been to them all. Expect the same bistro tables, comfy leather seats and marginally ok coffee. The wifi is strong but this little place, beyond having the worst view in the history of coffee shops, gets surprisingly busy. Be prepared to share tables.
However, the staff here are the MOST chipper… maybe because they realize they’re in a packade and need to step it up a bit. My Starbucks experiences generally run in the «meh» two star range, but the barista here was so charming, I knocked on another.
A good port in a wifi storm but nothing to write home about.

Nice place to kill time :). It was clean and comfortable and lots if beautiful people to watch.

I used to frequent this location just after they first opened. I remember being consistently impressed with the staff’s friendliness and willingness to engage in conversation. That’s a really nice touch that sometimes lacks at other Starbucks, understandably, if they are busy.
Location is nice and clean, well-​stocked, and they always have coffee grounds for compost available (yay!).

Always looking for a new meeting spot that is a little bit more quiet and unknown, Starbucks is hardly that, but this one isn’t bad. In this day and age, in this town, when you have a new shopping plaza opening up the green mermaid is not too far away from parking her rear in getting in on the action. We came to meet our financial advisor here as the one near my own work is always a bit more hectic. I thought that this would be on the top floor on the plaza, but it was on the bottom, and due to this, there is not as much natural lighting coming in on this place as one may, or may not like, but that’s what lights are for.
At first when I walked in, it looked small, then I saw the big extend from the entrance from the parking lot. All your signatures are here, from all the drinks, the swag they sell, the wi-​fi offered, and people you see who seem like they live here with the Macbooks working away on who knows what? It’s a normal sight, but this one doesn’t have too many of them… YET. It was a good place to meet up, especially thinking about Marine Drive there’s not too many coffee joints to ‘chill’ at.
I didn’t notice the background music being too loud here either, another plus!

Friendly staff, good coffee and tables with power sockets. All I need while I wait for my car to get back from Kaltire.

Free covered parking on the ground floor of the new Canadian Tire shopping complex, this is a convenient and large, but little known new location.

This is the newest addition in the massive 26 Marine Drive complex. I’m really digging the wood accents through the Starbucks and it has a nice, secluded nook area with comfy seats for the long-​term customers.
I didn’t really know what to expect, but the service was really awesome. They were all super friendly and coordinated for it not being open that long. It was also super clean and organized!
I will definitely be a return customer and not just because it’s close.