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| The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel Building starbuckseverywhere.net |
I had timed my trip pretty tightly, so when the volunteers from Samaritan Hospice tried to talk with me in the train station I was a bit short. I did however open my bag and let them stuff fliers and brochures inside. I promised to read them, which I'm sorry to say that I have yet to do. I will though, I promise. As I walked through the rain from my train stop in Center City towards the Starbucks, I decided that I would stop in The Bellevue-Stratford Building to eat the sandwich, dried apricots and walnuts that I had carried in with me for dinner. The building, built in 1904 and costing over $8,000,000 (in 1904 dollars), is just beautiful. The ceiling and iron work are magnificent. As I entered the building I was so focused on getting out of the rain and folding my umbrella that I barely noticed the lobby. After finishing my dinner in the downstairs dining court, I headed back through the lobby to walk over to the Starbucks. Now, here is the point in my story when a jewel dropped into my life. There on my left at the front revolving door was a Starbucks! I wondered over, looked around and decided to stay. It was a wonderful shop and Starbucks had made good use of the space. I settled into one of the four velvet chairs and began my letter.
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| Lobby The Bellevue-Stratford Building |
COMFORT COMMENTS: The comfort of this shop for me was all in the aesthetics. Starbucks had made full use of the grand lobby by leaving the front wall open at the top so that you could see the ceiling work. That same front wall had a beautiful stain glass window above the condiments table and the wall itself was made of mostly glass so that you never felt that you had left the lobby. Although there was a separate seating area that offered more choices, I preferred to sit in one of the velvet chairs so that I could watch the people coming and going in the Starbucks and through the revolving door of the building. I realized after a bit of time that I could see out a window to the building across the street which was being illuminated by lights that were changing in color and where a ballet rehearsal was taking place. Even the floor of the Starbucks competed for space in my mind with its mosaic flower design.
SHOP CRITIQUE: The only choice of creamer was half and half. A customer had to ask for the staff to refill the half and half. The store was very clean. This store did not have restrooms.
EMPLOYEE COMMENTS: The employees were very friendly. And because of that I do feel badly for repeating the following incident, but it struck me the wrong way at the time. I had ordered my coffee and forgot to say that I wanted decaf, which is a must for me after 2 PM. I got the barista's attention and asked if I could make it a decaf. Luckily she had not made the espresso yet and it was not a problem. However, when I apologized for forgetting, she replied, "Don't worry about it. When you pay $20 for a cup of coffee I think that you should get what you want." I don't really think Starbucks wants customers to walk away feeling that they are being overcharged.
INTERESTING AND INFORMATIONAL WEB-SITES:
*http://instantencore.com/music/player.aspx?ListItemId=1958473&webkitkey=140da1305820429f92ec3037551aaced
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue-Stratford_Hotel
*http://www.starbucks.com/
*http://www.soldiersangels.org/
*http://www.samaritanhospice.org/
I'm with the barista on this one. If you did indeed pay $20 bucks for a cup of coffee you SHOULD get what you want. After all, the cost of the coffee probably wasn't what drove the cost up to $20.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful building!