Chicago will be the sixth city in the world to get a Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the company announced Wednesday.
The 43,000-square-foot roastery will be built out in the Crate & Barrel on Michigan Avenue that will soon be closing. CBRE’s Robert Wislow, Camille Julmy and Todd Siegel represented the landlord of the property in the transaction. However, you’ll have to wait to get your coffee buzz in the four-story, “interactive,” roastery until 2019. The roastery will be be the company’s third in the U.S. following Seattle which opened in 2014 and New York City which is slated to open in 2018.
The roastery will be dedicated to roasting, brewing and packaging its rare, small-batch Starbucks Reserve coffees from around the world. The store is designed to “bring coffee to life,” by sharing multiple brewing methods, specialty Reserve beverages and mixology. Guests can also look forward to freshly baked goods from the Italian baker Rocco Princi.
Princi food and artisan breads will also be available at Reserve stores, and lucky us, one of those is coming to Chicago’s West Loop in 2018. That retail concept was inspired by the roastery but no stores are currently open to the public yet.
“Having opened our first Starbucks store in Chicago nearly thirty years ago, our first outside of Seattle, this is a very special city for me. At the time, it was a true test for Starbucks because the Chicago customer is so savvy and discerning about their coffee,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks executive chairman, in a statement.
