Starbucks Reserve: New York City

I made these photographs back in December. They have been sitting on the sd thats has been comfortably tucked away in my Fuji X-Pro 2. I just uploaded them and processed them this evening. The Starbucks Reserve Store that opened in December is an overwhelming playground for the ultimate consumer. I looks like a lab built for an alchemist. If you can’t appreciate good food or good coffee and your like your coffee served in white foam cups by a place that just dropped the word “donuts” from their longstanding name, then don’t bother going to a Starbucks Reserve, you generally won’t appreciate it. More so, the people who will be taking your orders will not appreciate you trying to order a large hot coffee with double extra extra and a side of insulin to go with your diabetic coma infused foam cup of burnt disappointment. Do yourself the favor and save the $18.52 you’d spend on the warm fresh pastry or slice of fresh semi authentic Italian pizza and the one of many amazing coffee beverages they have, as that $18.52 will be your entire months budget for burnt coffee you so longingly desire.

Discount the fact that the Starbucks Reserve feels like an animatronic display, it is a restaurant that has more options for coffee than you could imagine. It reminded of one of those Irish bars that has 100+ beers on tap that are constantly rotating. There were 3 sections of the new build that one could order drinks from, including a full bar. We walked around and looked at both the areas you could hand pick an item of carbo goodness. I was and am still on a moderately lower carb diet, which meant I wasn’t going to eat any of the pizza and forget about the pastry. I enjoy looking at both, but wasn’t about to eat them. Ive been pizza free for 1 year and 6 months. A personal choice and proud of that. While all the food did look more flavorful and moderately more healthy and fresh than ordering a Big Mac, I still chose not to eat it.

I walked around for nearly 15 minutes looking at the decor, the well timed orchestra of hipster baristas, and the very interesting display of coffee beans arriving in a bag to be sorted or whatever they were doing. Quite the interesting process. I asked my wife, “do you think this shit is real or for show?” She said show, but who knows. I was entertained by it. Hell, it made for good photos.

If you’re a fan of bean juice, as I am, I highly recommend a visit in.

Oh, and I am pleased, rather happy to provide some good news. The photos below are made with my Fuji X-Pro 2. If you follow along and remember me saying a while back that I busted my 35mm lens when I was ejected from my bike, well I fixed it. Yes, I, by myself fixed it. I was walking through lower Manhattan and fumbling around with it. I looked closely at how it was tilted and made a bold move. I gave it a wiggle and then a push popping it right back into its sweet spot. I was so excited I pulled it up to my eye and looked through the viewfinder. Clarity. No miss focus. Nothing. All images were sharp. I saved myself almost $400 on a replacement lens. Score.