Roasteries – large, sumptuous Starbucks stores that have specialty cakes and teas, roses on the spot and massive coffee boxes where freshly roasted beans are kept – are a way to "celebrate the romance of coffee", said Kevin Johnson, CEO of CNN Business .
The 32,000 square foot Tokyo Roastery opens to the public on Thursday morning. It's the fifth of its kind, after Roasteries in Seattle, Shanghai, Milan and New York City. After Tokyo, Starbucks plans to open yet another Roastery, in Chicago.
Roasterier is designed to solve a problem that all retailers face: How to make the store experience unique and exciting enough to entice customers. Starbucks also uses Roasteries to test design concepts and menu items ̵[ads1]1; and double down on the promise of providing a "third place" between home and work, even though it focuses on speed and convenience elsewhere.
"The Roastersies are brand enhancers for us," Johnson says. "It's their primary goal."
Tokyo Roastery
In Tokyo, customers visiting Roastery will be able to order elaborate drinks as black tea lattes garnished with turmeric and jasmine topped with popsicles. They will be able to look at cherry blossoms through glass walls and sip beverages on an outdoor terrace.
The Four-story store has a number of superlatives, it is the first Roastery to be designed from start to finish with a local designer, architect Kengo Kuma, and the first Starbucks -Located with a dedicated "inspirational salon" for hosting events, it is home to the world's largest Teavana tea bar, and Starbucks also hopes that one day will be the first of its stores to be certified by Special For the Coffee Association, a nonprofit member group, to train coffee staff.
But the Tokyo area also shares many elements with its four predecessor sites, such as cask – but over 55 meters high is Tokyo's largest. It also shares distinctive design features such as a split-flap plate, called a varnish table, which shows that the coffee is roasted in the roasts. Like all Roastery, the Tokyo location has a number of overhead pipes that shoot beans throughout the building, sell custom goods, and incorporate Princi bakeries into stores. It also has an Arriviamo cocktail bar such as New York and Milan Roasteries.
