San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday)
Does Italy want more cafes? Starbucks will find out
MILAN — If there is one thing Italy would not seem to need, especially from Americans, it is another place to buy a cup of coffee.
But hundreds of people in Milan thought otherwise Friday, lining up for at least an hour to take part in the latest place-to-be event in Italy’s fashion and design capital: the country’s first Starbucks cafe.
No ordinary Starbucks, this is a Reserve Roastery — the company’s third, after locations in Seattle and Shanghai — complete with an in-house coffee roastery, a 30-foot-long Tuscan marble bar, various coffee stations (customers are given a physical map to the shop) and more than 115 beverages. It lies in the heart of the city, a short walk from the Milan Cathedral and the Royal Palace in one direction, and the Sforza Castle in the other.
With its splashy entree into Milanese society, Starbucks tailored its offerings to Italian tastes, which may need time to get used to some of the company’s American fare, like a venti pumpkin spice latte with maple pecan sauce. For now, there is novelty aplenty, but no Frappuccino.
“It’s something different from your typical cafe,” said Beatrice Volonterio, who came from Seregno, about 13 miles to the north, for the opening. She and a friend waited in a line snaking around the building — a scene broadcast live on the website of Milanese daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera — but she said it was worth it.
Volonterio liked the sleek decor, the friendly staff and even the cappuccino, though it sells for around three times the going price at other Milanese venues. “It’s not cheap,” she admitted.
The high prices are one reason some Italians were steamed.
“Customers should know that they’re paying an additional cost,” said Massimiliano Dona, president of Italy’s National Consumers Union, who was especially outraged at the 1.80-euro price for an espresso, which typically costs around a euro in a Milan cafe. (By his estimation, the same cup would cost 12 cents if made at home, making the Starbucks espresso a 1,400 percent markup.)
Dona compared the hype of the Starbucks opening to another contentious American invasion: McDonald’s opening its first restaurant in Italy, near the Spanish Steps in Rome in 1986. “It was a fad to go, at first,” he said, but it later died down.
“But drinking coffee is a question of habit,” Dona said, predicting that Starbucks would never supplant the neighborhood cafes and bars that are daily caffeine pitstops for many Italians on the way to work or school.
The established cafes were not admitting any fear of the new competition — if it could be called that.
“We’re not so worried, we are pretty well known here and abroad,” said Marina Brusaferro, who works at Pascucci, one of Milan’s best-known coffee shops. She said Pascucci’s prices were more competitive, and the coffee was better.
At a central Milan branch of the Caffe Vergnano 1882 coffeehouse chain, the manager, Raffaele Schiavone, said he was not fazed by the new rival, even though one of four regular Starbucks scheduled to open in Milan by the end of the year will be nearby. Those four locations will serve Frappuccino, much to the delight of those who complained on social media that it was missing from the roastery.
“Our traditional blend of coffee is very appreciated, we offer quality,” Schiavone said. “We have a niche clientele, who come for the food, and for the relaxed atmosphere. Life is already hectic.”
On one wall of the new Starbucks, which occupies an elegant converted post office dating to 1901, is an inscription dedicated to Milan: “The city that inspired our dreams. Every coffee that we have ever served brought us here.”
It refers to a 1983 visit here by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman emeritus, which he has repeatedly cited as the inspiration for the coffeehouse chain that began in Seattle and now has more than 27,000 outlets worldwide.
He has had his sights set on this city for a long time.
“Milan is the closing of a circle,” said Giampaolo Grossi, general manager of the Milan Reserve Roastery, as it is known, which opened after a year of construction and three months of staff training.
Grossi spoke of the roastery as “an experience,” not in competition with Milanese coffeehouses, which have their own traditions and histories. Instead, Starbucks will offer the amenities typical of its stores in the United States, including free Wi-Fi and the “possibility to come, sit, not buy anything, and hold business meetings,” he said.
Or, Grossi said, customers could opt for “the quick Italian experience,” and knock back an espresso standing at the bar, as most Italians do.