The World’s Largest Starbucks Is Opening in Chicago Next Month and It Looks Gorgeous

From Oprah Magazine

The world’s largest Starbucks is opening at 10 a.m. November 15 on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, the company confirmed Friday. It will overtake the recently opened Toyko Reserve Roastery as Starbucks’ biggest store and is the sixth Roastery in the world, following locations in Seattle, Shanghai, New York City, Milan, and Tokyo.

The space was first announced in 2017 and few new details beyond its opening date have been released yet. We do know it’s set to open in a massive 43,000-square-foot space previously occupied by Crate & Barrel. For context, the NYC Roastery is less than half that size.

Inside, roasteries are pretty much the Willy Wonka chocolate factory of coffee shops. Visitors are surrounded by all things coffee—Starbucks’ reserve beans are roasted inside the store while tubes overhead transport beans to be packaged. The menus are much more elaborate than a typical Starbucks store, both on the coffee side and food-wise. Thanks to the Princi bakery inside, you can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner here.

The Chicago Roastery will employ 200 people, including local mixologists crafting cocktails at the Reserve’s bar, the Chicago Tribune reports. There will be exclusive drinks “inspired by the culture and traditions of Chicago” too. The space will be open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and until 11 p.m. during the week.

In Starbucks’ initial press release, former CEO Howard Schultz said Chicago is a special city for the company, as it was the first place to house a Starbucks outside Seattle when the first Chicago Starbucks opened in October 1987.

This could be the last Roastery for awhile—chief operating officer Roz Brewer told the Tribune there are no plans for additional roasteries at this time, although that could change. Either way, I’ll be planning a trip to Chicago this fall!