Presenting a ‘Destination’ Starbucks

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room opened today at the corner of Pike and Minor in a repurposed 1920s auto-row building on Capitol Hill, offering a multipurpose experience dramatically different from the customary wait-in-line Starbucks procedure.

One cannot order a pumpkin spice or eggnog latte at the Roasterys cafe bar. In fact, typical Starbucks libations don’t appear on the menu at all. Instead, visitors are encouraged to linger, speak with working coffee masters, describe their preferences, learn about coffee-making methods and try out a few samples. Its the only location in the world that roasts Starbucks Reserve line, whose various roasts generally sell for $14 a half-pound.

Its also got pizza. Tom Douglas third Serious Pie restaurant occupies one corner of the 15,000-square-foot, three-level ode to coffee.

The Roastery, designed to attract coffee connoisseurs and tourists alike, honors the integrity of the journey from bean to mug, celebrating farmers and roasters from around the world and highlighting local artisans and their wares, such as Glassybaby drinkware and 5 Lines Pottery mugs.

An open-concept design invites transparency and encourages the curious. Visitors can see the roasting process, watch beans being bagged and moved along a conveyor belt, and follow fresh green beans as they move through copper pipes that soar along the ceiling in a shape that resembles latte art. It’s one of many new concepts critical to Starbucks’ long-term strategy to create products and venues that develop their own cultures and followings, as detailed in this Seattle Business story last April.

Every detail of the building tips its hat to a facet of the coffee industry. We really want to geek out on coffee, says lead designer Andre Kim. His passion for the project is evident in the five bean silos he calls them gems adorning the cafe bar, and the railway-timetable-style board overhead, nicknamed The Clacker, which updates the days offerings in real time.

Open daily 7 a.m.11 p.m.; 1124 Pike St.; starbucks.com/roastery