The Vancouver-Based Coffee Shop That Inspired Starbucks

Coffee shops have long been breeding grounds for inspiration. From struggling writers to future tech founders, all kinds of people have dreamed up world-changing ideas over a cup of coffee. Which makes it kind of perfect — and a little ironic — that the biggest idea to ever come out of any coffee shop was ... a coffee shop. Or 32,000 coffee shops to be more accurate. We're talking about Murchie's Tea & Coffee, the Canadian café that inspired a worldwide coffee revolution.

The story starts with Gordon Bowker, one of the founders of Starbucks. He got his first taste of good coffee on a trip to Italy — the spiritual home of the espresso. Back in Seattle, he'd drive his Alfa Romeo all the way to Vancouver to indulge the obsession at a café called Murchie's, known for roasting its own beans. During frequent 140-mile drives north, he began returning with bigger and bigger hauls of coffee. According to the website Canadiana Connection, things got to a point where an American Customs officer politely pointed out the line between buying and smuggling.

Bowker's answer? Start a coffee company. In 1971, he and his roommates Zev Siegl and Jerry Baldwin, opened their first shop near Pike Place Market in Seattle, selling coffee, spices and other coffee-related accessories. Starbucks has 32,000 franchises around the world today. Murchie's continues to sell high-quality tea and coffee, and has eight retail stores across stores in Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria, as well as a mail order business that delivers coffee worldwide.

Coffee's evolution in America is often described in waves. Pre-Starbucks was the first wave, when coffee was a low‑cost commodity served at diners and fast‑food counters, and rarely cost more than 25–50 cents a cup, with prices around a dollar becoming commonplace only a decade later. It was offered with free refills in many restaurants — not something you savored, but something you filled your thermos with.

The second wave, led by chains like Starbucks and Caribou, brought café culture to the mainstream in the late 20th century. This wave was as much about the coffee as it was about building unique coffee experiences. The third wave emerged from a small, quality-obsessed community, focused not just on sourcing transparency and bringing out the full complexity of the bean, but also on coffee shop etiquette. Today, this movement continues to push boundaries, redefining what great coffee can be across the U.S.

Coffee's rise in U.S. pop culture is perhaps most famously captured in "Friends", where the cast spent much of their time lounging at Central Perk — a cozy, couch-filled coffee shop. In fact, here's a fun bit of parallel growth: When "Friends" first aired in 1994, Starbucks had just 425 stores in the U.S. By the time the final episode aired in 2004, that number had skyrocketed to 8,569 locations.