The largest Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which spans about 35,000 square feet across five floors, opens its door today! The building used to be Crate & Barrel’s flagship for 27 years, located on Michigan Avenue in Chicago’s busiest shopping corridor, the Magnificent Mile.

The roastery features three coffee bars, a cocktail bar, and an artisan bakery and cafe. Princi bakery is equipped with a high-tech conveyer, which can transport freshly-baked focaccia, cornetti and breads from the second floor to the first floor. Arriviamo Cocktail Bar is dedicated to the centuries-old craft of barrel-aging with coffee beverages like Whiskey Barrel Aged Cold Brew and Mulled Spiced Coffee.

The exquisite design also draws the visitors’ eye. A 56-feet-steel cask (the company’s tallest) stands in the center, where freshly roasted coffee beans will rest in this bronze container and move through tubes in all derections, visible from every floor.

Encircling the cask is a curved escalator – the Midwest’s first – taking visitors from the first to the second floor and offering a 360-degree view of the roasting and brewing below.

Furthermore, the company collaborated with local artists, like Eulojio Ortega, who painted the mural that unfolds in a staircase spanning all five floors. His work pays tribute to coffee farmers and origins.

The Chicago Starbucks Reserve Roastery is the company’s sixth Reserve-brand roastery. It follows Reserve Roasteries in Tokyo (2019), New York (2018), Milan (2018), Shanghai (2017), and Seattle (2014). Each of them shows the respect to coffee culture and history of the city.

All photos from Starbucks press