Starbucks

This is a delightful place for me to get my occasional Starbucks coffee. The coffee and people there are delightful. It’s in such a good location. Whenever I want to spend a little money on coffee and when I want to treat myself, this is great for that. I love this place.

If you have ever been to a Halal Market in the Middle East and love the sound of 20 Somalian men yelling their conversations in Arabic around you, then this place is for you. If, on the other hand, you are like me and like to come to a Starbucks to get some work done, then you’re better off finding another spot to do it, because you will not be able to concentrate here. This seems to be the spot where all the Somalian men around the neighborhood get together to gossip.
This Starbucks itself is ok, just like any other Starbucks, its the environment that the clientele creates that makes it annoying and unappealing. Staff is friendly and competent, but, again, not an inviting place to hang out.

I love this place! It reminds me a lot of the coffee experience back home in Portland. :) some of the friendliest Baristas are working at this location. Thank you Starbucks!

This Starbucks is in a prime residential location and sits in front of major bus stops. I assume that the menu items are identical in most Starbucks locations around here, so I will review other variables, such as service, environment, and product quality.
Service is impeccable. I have been helped by no less than 10 different cashiers and barristas — and they are consistently friendly and genuinely want you to like what you order. I sometimes get indecisive about what pastry item to get, and a couple of barristas will chime in to compare different pastries, how sweet they are, what they don’t like, etc. The baristas and cashiers seem to like each other and work well together (and give the impression that they are professionals instead of co-​worker-​friends kicking back on the job). To me, this atmosphere means this location has a reasonable manager who is in touch with his/​her employees’ lives.
This location seems to be busy all day during business hours. Most of the customers appear to be Somali. The store becomes more quiet around 5−6pm and until closing. The space is small, but the tables are well-​spaced apart and the long bar area makes this store cozy.
Parking isn’t so great in this area. You could park across the street at CVS, along Nicollet, or in the empty Farmer’s Market parking lot. Other than that, it seems like most customers live within walking distance, or they are commuters waiting for a bus.
I once ordered a dark chocolate pastry and was surprised to see the cashier take it out of a sealed plastic bag. It seems as though each pastry is individually sealed to preserve its freshness, both in taste and appearance. I like how careful the packaging is, yet I feel slightly bad at the waste of plastic… I would say that almost all pastries here (sadly) beat out the pastries sold at all of the surrounding bakeries in the area.
This Starbucks seems to have transitioned to an all La Boulange line. With that said, here are my favorite pastries: blueberry yogurt muffin with honey, cranberry orange scone (just the right amount of sweetness!), blueberry scone, dark chocolate croissant.

This location is a pioneer in the new Starbuck’s Fusion Movement.
On one hand, you have a carbon-​copy of every Starbucks I have ever seen. But on the other, you have… The Betty Ford Clinic? Located on Franklin Ave and Nicollet Ave between a downtown bus stop and a liquor store, this place is a real peach.
Whether you’re looking for a «fresh» pastry, a cup of coffee, or 3 dozen East African gentleman yelling loudly at each other from the hours of 7 am to 8pm, this is your place.
Get ready to make memories. You know in movies, where an inspired teacher goes to a intercity school to make a difference, and the rest of the staff has given up on life? That’s the staff here. I’ve witnessed homeless bathing at a table next to me, a woman throwing up in the trashcan next to the creamers, and a man watching porn openly during morning business rush on his laptop. (Thanks for that free Internet access?)
My favorite was a very, very drunk woman in a red formal gown at 8 am asking me if she could «Profile» me. When I declined, she went from table to table asking random strangers if I was mad at her. Then fell over another. Then spilled hot coffee on herself.
Twice.
The staff did nothing but exude a «Dear God, Make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far, far away!!!» look in their eyes. (Yeah, that’s a child molestation reference from Forrest Gump. I said it. It seemed appropriate.) Luckily for me, one of the aforementioned East African fellows alerted a local police officer. «SOMEBODY GET THIS CRAZY DRUNK AWAY FROM ME» is truly a universal language.
So if you’re in the mood for a overpriced but decent cup of the olé’ Joe, but really need a reason to take a shower afterwards… baby, this is your JAM.

First let me get this out of the way: I am a huge fan of Starbucks. I mean I have gone through periods of months where I would get it two times a day. That is some serious love. With that in mind, this location is just ok. The staff is hit or miss in the friendliness department and that is one of the biggest draws for a coffee shop for me. One day I will walk in there and the girl behind the counter will be cheerful and ask about my day as she is already writing my order on a cup because she remembers me from a few days ago. The next visit (which was the case today when I dropped in for my guilty pleasure) the person behind the counter did not even say Hi or Good Morning. They just stared at me and waited for me to order. Is it so hard to just smile once and a while. I ordered multiple drinks and they did not even offer a carrier for the cups to help me get out to my car. I have only had one instance where they completely messed up a drink for me which is pretty good. Other than the staff, the location itself is not as comfy as many others I’ve been to. Where are the leather chairs and couches? Sometimes I want to go to a coffee house to just relax for a few minutes and there is no where to do that at this location. Overall it is just an average Starbucks that I go to because it is the most convenient location wise for me. I am tempted when I think of the less than friendly employees to try the new local coffee shop that opened up across the street from this location. Maybe that will be my next coffee fix and review. We’ll see

I don’t drink coffee (aka crack), but I’ve been here many times with and for others. What happened to the whole anti-​Starbucks movement? I would have rather seen an independent store here so that the money was staying in MN and not going to Seattle, or at least not a coffee place kitty corner to an already existing independent coffee place, but if Starbucks hadn’t moved in it’s possible no one would have.
This place though serves a purpose as a meeting space for the Somalis that live nearby but far enough from the Karmel Square Somali mall. In one sense it seems sad that the local Somalis go to a chain instead of the independents, but then again, how often do you see white people in Somali coffee houses, never. Chains provide a neutral space, bleached a bit of ethnicity or particularity, where everyone feels comfortable going.
That intersection, and particularly that corner in front of the bus stop, is a hot spot that often draws tirades and police. So I give Starbucks a bit of credit for neither letting the chaos of that corner invade their business, or enforcing the corporate orderliness of their business onto that corner.

I’m going to write this review under the assumption you’ve been to a Starbucks before because (shocker) you probably have. The experience here is your general Starbucks experience: nothing more, nothing less. It is a clean coffee shop, they play the same music every Starbucks plays, the drinks taste exactly like they do at everything other Starbucks you’ve ever been to, and the WiFi is generally pretty strong. The people who frequent it are a bit more varied than your normal Starbucks, but not when you consider this is on the north end of Eat Street near Stevens Square. You know what you’re getting with this Starbucks, just like you know what you’re getting with almost every Starbucks.

I think this Starbucks is fine, its a nice place to hang out in the summer and it is an interesting neighborhood, one with great people-​watching porch area.
It seems like it takes the Baristas so much longer to prepare the drinks here than any other Starbucks I go to but they are very very nice.
I probably won’t come here this winter because, although, the inside is OK but parking can be an issue at times. The drinks taste the same as any other Starbucks so its very consistent.

This is my neighborhood location so I’ve been patronizing this Starbucks since the day it opened. I’ve watched a lot of employees come & go; some are missed, some are not, but for the most part I’m happy with how my coffee drink is made & the customer service I receive. The best days are those when certain baristas see me coming & have my drink ready as I’m paying. I love that! It’s really only possible because I am so predictable. I always order the same drink, the only difference is that I order it hot during the winter & iced the rest of the year.
The parking situation is crap (9 times out of 10 there’s someone parked right under the giant No Parking sign, effectively blocking one side of the entrance/​exit), but I don’t drive so what do I care?
My only issue is that nearly every new barista thinks I want a white mocha when they hear my drink for the first time. Without fail! I don’t get it. I order a raspberry mocha, why are they always sticking the word «white» in there? I HATE white chocolate.