Starbucks Plans to Open Its Largest Location in the World Next Month

Starbucks is opening its largest location ever on November 15 in Chicago, and it sounds like it will get to keep that title for a while. The 43,000-square-foot shop is the latest and possibly last Starbucks Reserve Roastery, a concept Delish compares to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

In its initial announcement of the Chicago roastery in 2017, Starbucks described it as “a fully sensorial coffee environment dedicated to roasting, brewing and packaging its rare, small-batch Starbucks Reserve coffees from around the world.”

The roastery will sell drinks not found on regular Starbucks menus, plus meals, desserts, and pastries from Italian bakery Princi. The offerings sound miles above breakfast sandwiches and protein boxes. According to Starbucks, the menu will start at breakfast “with cornetti topped with almonds or piped with raspberry jam, baked eggs in a spicy tomato sauce and steel-cut oats with Italian marmalade. At lunchtime, the menu offers soups, salads, focaccia sandwiches, pizza al taglio and hot entrees. Afternoons expand to a wider selection of Italian cakes and tarts, like Princina (made from a chocolate shortbread crust, filled with ganache and dusted with cocoa powder).”

Along with all this delicious food, the roastery will also serve specialty cocktails created by local mixologists. It will be open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, 10 p.m. on Sundays, and 11 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

The building holding the roastery formerly housed Crate & Barrel, and the brand’s founder, Gordon Segal, helped to redesign it for Starbucks. On Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, the glassy building will provide an ideal perch for people-watching.

While Starbucks famously began in Seattle, Chicago is another important landmark for the company: It was home to Starbucks’s first location outside Seattle, 30 years ago. According to the Chicago Tribune, there are no plans for additional roasteries.