We live in a city where a 20 minute walk can include two Stumptowns, two Baristas, and Water Avenue Coffee. We are absolutely spoiled. So it’s easy to forget that Starbucks is actually an amazing place as long as you don’t surround it with anything better.
When you’re traveling outside of a handful of cities that care about coffee (or even in one of those cites but you’re stuck in an airport or convention center), Starbucks is a godsend. It serves AVERAGELY bad coffee. I have nothing good to say about the coffee at Starbucks except that it’s better than coffee that’s worse. It’s better than McCafe where the kid has to press “override: no liquid sugar” if you order it black. It’s better than hotel/gas station/museum cafe/diner coffee.
Let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine you had two cups of coffee, one from Starbucks, one from your favorite shop. Now imagine somebody took away that second cup. The first one seems so much better, right?
Now imagine you’re in an airport and your options are that cup or something from Coffee People. It’s starting to seem great isn’t it?
Independent coffee shops aren’t necessarily better. I ordered an Americano at a coffee shop in Texas and the woman looked visibly shaken. “Oh, I think I know what that is,” she said, pulling herself together. After she pulled the espresso shot, she tapped the grounds into the cup with it and handed the whole thing to me. “No, I’m sorry. I ordered an Americano. Not a Garbage Drink.”
I’d love to support mom & pop operations, but frequently mom & pop have no clue how to make coffee. They’re just a retired couple who uses Illy pre-ground beans and also sell gelato, bubble tea, key chains, and are a post office branch.
Next time you see somebody walk into a Starbucks when you know something better is right around the corner, remember they’re not bad people. They just don’t know better. They’re probably from a town where their choice is Starbucks or Garbage Drink.
Starbucks is better than well over half of the independent coffee shops in this town.
I also avoid going there if I have to, but to appreciate Starbucks, you have to understand what the options were before Starbucks, which was basically some variation of gas station coffee everywhere from work to restaurants.
Starbucks for all its fault showed people that coffee could be better, and then other showed up and made it much much better. But at least Starbucks showed the way.
And now they sell 800 calorie milkshakes to people in my office who call it “coffee”.
It is because of Starbucks that these smaller places even had the slight possibilty of success.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/m/article-32…
Maybe if some of these independent coffee shops opened before 8am, I’d go to them. But I work real grown up hours at a real job and need coffee and pastries early in the morning.
Starbucks provides their employees full health insurance – how many independent shops do? I would also venture that Starbucks offers their employees far more upward career mobility than their independent equivalent. Food (Coffee?) for thought.
Local coffee that is *always* better than Starbucks: Cellar Door Coffee, Courier Coffee, Oblique Coffee, Ristretto Roasters, Heart, Common Grounds, Coava, Portland Roasters, Public Domain, Red E, Water Avenue, even not locally owned Stumptown.
Support local businesses. Better coffee and better for Portland.
Alex, lamesauce. Real coffee aficionados do not drink “Americanos”. Ick.
The reason I still prefer Starbucks to the indies is that I don’t get sneered at when I order my drink. Stumptown is about the rudest place I’ve ever walked into.
The Stumptown folks are very friendly, just a myth that they are dicks. Try to order something with 12 words in the name and you deserve to be treated like a shit, because you are looking for a milkshake, not coffee. Try going to a decent restaurant and ordering a Big Mac, see if they don’t act a little pissed.
I like Dutch brothers because their hiring policy ensures i always get some sweet sugar with my hot coffee
Wow. I was not expecting so much instant agreement. I’m a little bummed that I’m no longer a real coffee aficionado because @Cascadian says I’m not, but I’m sure I’ll get over it after a bit of crying.
Agree with Graham. I know people who prefer it because other places won’t open ’til later. Wake up and open up your store, dum-dums. It’ll be good practice for when you accidentally impregnate/get impregnated and squeeze out a pup that’ll wake you up every day even earlier.
Starbucks is comfort coffee. It always tastes the same every day, no matter the location.
Here is my problem. There are some independent as fuck cafe owners in this city that make a ridiculously good cup of coffee, and they all have the same thing in common- they are poor buisness owners. If your sign says you are open at 7, don’t saunter in at 8 and then spend an hour getting ready. You can be as surly and rude to me as a customer all you want, I’m just paying for goods and services with cash money. But take a buisness class or two before you open shop only to close in less than 6 months.
Wow, this thread IS surprisingly reasonable. I’ll add to the chorus of “I’d love to patronize your indie coffee store, but you don’t open until 8.”
I regularly drop in Random Order on Alberta for coffee and a muffin (open at 6:30). I always wanted to patronize Dovetail down the street more, but they opened at 8(ish).
Now Dovetail’s closed. That sucks, but it feels avoidable because they seem to have traded some pretty decent business for that extra hour of sleep.
Stumptown opens at 6 AM on weekdays, try again.
Seriously, does anyone go to Foster Burger and say “you mean I can’t get chicken nuggets AND you don’t open until 11?! Why are you guys assholes?!”
I like that I can piss Starbuckaristas off by simply asking for a “medium coffee.” “Oh, you mean a grande?” “I don’t know, I want a medium coffee.”
As Blabby said, SBUX gets credit for creating a market for good coffee. After they created that market, they shifted from owning the good coffee deal to selling “Friends”, in several senses of the word. If SBUX is your scene, it’s like being part of a club; you have a secret language and people who know your name. That is the same thing that most people who go to the indies are in for as well, a chance to buy credibility with their club (of surly hipsters, self-employed people working from coffee shops, or whoever else they identify with.)
In the end, I’ll continue making tasty french press coffee at home at a steep discount. When I occasionally go for a mocha, I’ll own up to the fact that it is a treat not unlike buying ice cream. And in that case, it isn’t about the coffee.
I drink black coffee. Which fortunately puts me into a camp of people who will always, ALWAYS be able to make a better cup of coffee at home than in a store.
I agree with everything Graham and CC have said. Which isn’t really all that surprising. There’s an unnamed coffee place that I like, is close by and I’d totally go to… If they didn’t open at 10am. I’ll only add:
1) I drink Starbucks for consistency. I like to know exactly what I’m getting and will settle on “just okay” coffee than randomly getting an awesome cup.
2) I drink Starbucks because they’re a major corp that took a stand of LGBT rights. I realize that’s fluffy as fuck, and possibly just a way to get them free advertising. But I’ll take it, it’s an issue that’s very important to me.
3) I drink Starbucks because the staff is usually nice. I don’t have a very thick skin when it comes to bullies. Most indie baristas are bullies.
All that said, I’ll drink at Cellar Door any time I can fit it into my schedule. They’re awesome, friendly and consistent.
I once went to Albina Press, ordered a cup of coffee, paid, thanked the dead-eyed barista, TIPPED, and then stood there, literally the only person in line, for four minutes before I realized on my own that I was expected to round the counter, get a mug and fill it myself.
That is why I go to Starbucks more often than not. I am not going to pay $2.50 for a cup of coffee I have to pump from a mostly empty air pot myself.
Agree with Graham and Ill Paxton. Seriously, many people go to work early in Portland and options are mostly limited to Starbucks. Is what it is
@melogna, visitors to Portland are always very surprised that food service here is so often, “serve yourself, clean up after yourself, tip 20%.”
@Colin – When I go back to my hometown of (duh) Pittsburgh, or anywhere in the Midwest, I’m shocked by the good service there – waiters and baristas are actually hired for attentiveness (or are teenagers learning it, like at the Panera near my dad’s house).
I can take chain coffee or leave it, but they’re consistently above-average, unlike the glop that’s Stumptown Hair Bender, or served by a snotty hipster.
I just wanted to give a shout out to Peet’s, where the staff is always friendly and efficient, and the iced coffee is smooth, never bitter. It’s my go-to coffee shop when I’m at work, where I literally have at least six different coffee options within a two block radius (including Starbucks and Stumptown).
I don’t agree with you about the mean service. Snotty baristas are usually a sure sign of quality product, so when I’m traveling and I see reviews that complain about the service I assume the coffee’s good.