Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which brings together an elite coffee shop and a roaster factory under one roof, has opened in Meatpacking, a former meat-cutting quarter of Lower Manhattan that has since the late 1990s turned into a territory of trendy restaurants, shops and galleries. Concrete floors, copper fittings and solid wood furniture are all hallmarks of Meatpacking's industrial past. The open layout of Starbucks Reserve Roastery resembles a workshop space, and the uniforms of the staff are similar to those of early-century American workers. Green coffee travels from the cellar to the roasting site in large bags, just like on a factory conveyor. The project was developed in-house by the Starbucks team, led by Chief Designer and Senior Vice President Liz Muller.
Conceptual coffee factory occupies the first floor
a new office building designed by Rafael Vignoli. Premises with an area of 2 140 m2 divided into several zones: seating, retail outlets, two bar counters, a Princi bakery in Milan, an underground warehouse and Arriviamo craft cocktail bar on the mezzanine floor.
The heart of the coffee house is a copper barrel, where freshly roasted beans are stored. The imposing nine-meter high tank was built and installed by a Kansas-based architecture firm
A Zahner. Overhead, visitors have an extensive network of copper pipes, through which coffee is delivered to the bar counters. As the grains move, they hit the metal walls: this dimensional noise resembles drizzling rain.
The ceiling is lined with rectangular and square “boxes” that house the lighting system and provide suitable acoustics functions. This geometric pattern is a reference at the same time to
the exterior of the building where the coffee shop is located; and the layout of Manhattan.
On one of the walls is a glass tank with coffee bushes, ferns and philodendrons - plants from Costa Rica. It is in this country that
the first Starbucks coffee farm. The tank is manufactured by Baltimore-based Furbish, which specializes in green roof and wall design.
Sturdy walnut furniture in American modernism style provided by a product design studio with an "architectural background"
Bassamfellows.
Starbucks Reserve Roastery is the brand's fourth premium coffee shop, with the first three to open in Seattle (home of Starbucks), Shanghai and Milan. Liz Mueller says the result is a "very New York place" that brings together completely different formats. “Here you can have a party, you can meet your love, -
lists Müller. - You can come here alone. You can come here if you [accidentally] find yourself in the neighborhood. [A visit to Starbucks Reserve Roastery] can become a daily ritual."
