Here's Where To Find The World's Largest Starbucks
In 2019, Starbucks unveiled its next Starbucks Reserve location in Chicago. Like an Eataly for coffee lovers, the 35,000 square foot roastery that combines multiple retail spaces with a small batch roasting facility is a towering mecca for coffee devotes, according to Eat This, Not That!, and is the largest Reserve location in the world.
A feast for your eyes and your tastebuds, Starbucks explains that the Michigan Avenue Reserve boasts the Midwest's first curved escalator, twisting around a 56-foot steel cask. The sculptural vessel is a unification of form and function where the roasted coffee rests before it's ready for sale. The cask draws the eye upwards, spiraling toward infinity.
According to Starbucks, each level offers a unique variation on the coffee experience. The first floor features a coffee bar, where you can order your favorite Starbucks bevies, and a scooping bar, where you can purchase the special in-house roasted coffee to take home. The custom-made roaster is also found on this level, where master roasters toast the beans in full view of customers.
Princi Bakery and Café on the second floor features Milanese baker Rocco Princi's delectable bread, pizzas, and pastries. Hearty breakfasts like Eggs in Purgatory and tasty lunch items like Lasagna Bolognese replace the usual grab-and-go or convection oven-heated staples found at a regular Starbucks location.
Touring the world's largest Starbucks
Climb to the third floor for the Experiential Coffee Bar, where baristas craft specialty coffee concoctions, including an affogato of gelato made from liquid nitrogen-infused sweet cream. Coffee flights are available to try different roasts of their Reserve Coffee. Their Siphon Flight — a siphon brewing method that uses vacuum pressure and gravity — lends some theatrics to the experience via Nosh & Nibble.
The fourth floor's Arriviamo Bar has a boozy coffee and tea-inspired drink menu crafted by acclaimed Chicago mixologists Julia Momose, Annie Beebe-Tron, and Rachel Miller. The Barrel Aged Coffee Bar, also on four, showcases drinks made from spirit-barrel aged coffee beans. Customers can sip their specialty brews overlooking Michigan Avenue, the fifth floor's rooftop terrace.
Buildings reports that the first two levels are interconnected by conveyors that bring the pastries from the bakery to the first floor. The transparent coffee tubes that transport the beans pneumatically throughout the store and the artwork by local Chicago artists found on each level ties all floors together. This location is also the first Starbucks Reserve to run on 100% wind-generated power.