Starbucks as a 1970s Coffee House & Bean Roastery

The Story

You push open the heavy wooden door of Starbucks and the smell of fresh-roasted beans hits immediately,deep, almost chocolatey, mingling with the warmth of the espresso machine's steam; behind the counter, a young roaster in a canvas apron hand-writes the day's bean origins on kraft paper labels while a small grinder whirs in the background. The whole shop is lit by soft amber lamps over small round tables scattered with newspapers and dog-eared copies of The Whole Earth Catalog, and the only music comes from a radio playing quietly somewhere near the roasting room in back. People linger for hours over small ceramic cups, watching the roaster through the open window as he turns beans in the drum roaster, the warm brown of the shop itself seeming to reflect the color of what's being made.

Visual Details

The burlap sacks and brass espresso machine take Starbucks back to what it actually was; a company built on sourcing obsession and craft roasting, not drive-thru convenience. Surrounding them with plants and handwritten menus argues that Starbucks's real DNA was always the specialty coffee shop, not the corporation that buried it.