Vice Versa

My Starbucks is closing on me…

Dany Claeys is correspondent in Charlotte, NC for myAmerica.be. About 25 years ago he moved to the United States and since then has acted as a bridge between Belgian and American cultures."

When we first arrived 25 years ago in the charming southern small city of Charlotte, NC, we ventured out on several Sunday afternoons to find a European style coffee shop to enjoy a good strong cup of coffee with a tasteful pastry such as an éclair or napoleon. After trying watery coffee (watervlietse koffie) and all sorts of doughnuts at several interesting sounding places like Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Bojangles, Cracker Barrel, Huddle House, etc. we finally ended up in a Waffle House. We learned to appreciate the 99 cent bottomless cup of coffee (free refills!) and their infamous waffles. Soon we became masters in ordering freshly brewed coffee (avoiding overheated stale coffee) and dark brown crisp waffles (avoiding doughy soggy waffles) at the local Waffle House. Working for a Belgian company we were lucky to have many visitors from Belgium and soon they were summoned to bring our favorite Douwe Egberts coffee and Lotus speculoos cookies. Still we were missing our éclairs, but with some recipes from our mothers we were finally able to master our home cooked pastries with the best home made crème de patisserie.

From Waffle House to Flavia

In the late nineties, some gentlemen in Seattle discovered there was indeed a market for a good strong cup of coffee in the US and finally in the larger cities (including Atlanta) several coffee shops started to pop up everywhere such as Seattle’s Best, Caribou, Atlanta Bread Company, Panera Bread and of course Starbucks. Even Delta Airlines started serving Caribou coffee with Lotus cookies, which they called biscoffs. Only when we moved to the New York area, did we finally also discover the many different bagel shops and pastry shops with a dozen of varieties of bagels, scone’s and cookies (whole wheat blackberry bagels and nutty oatmeal raising cookie are my favorites) and finally also European style pastries, almost like at our local bakery in Belgium. While living in the North, we also discovered the “one cup coffee makers” like Senseo, Flavia, Lavazza, Keurig, Tassimo, Melitta, etc. guaranteeing finally also a good fresh cup of coffee at home, in the office and even at the dentist office.

Magic Johnson

When we decided to moved back south to Charlotte, NC, I had first checked the internet and no problem, there were plenty of Starbucks, Caribou’s, Brueggers and organic stores like Earth Fare, Whole Foods and Traders Joe to find our favorite coffee, pastries and breads. However, our office here is located on the west side close to the airport and major highways, which is a good location for business, but not exactly the most hip or trendy part of town. To our excitement a Starbucks opened up close by the office almost two years ago. We were surprised they located this new Starbucks right next to a Wal-Mart and a Duke Power payment center, right at a public bus stop and across from the infamous Paper Doll adult club; all these are not exactly attracting crowds of gourmet coffee and 4 dollar latte lovers. We learned later this was a noble joint initiative of Starbucks and Magic Johnson (previous LA Lakers NBA star) to bring upscale coffee shops to developing under served ethnically diverse neighborhoods. (the first one was in Harlem, NY)

Friendly Baristas and Panhandlers…

For the last two years, I enjoyed almost daily my tall First Peak coffee and multi grain bagel with cream cheese under a green umbrella on the Starbucks patio, while enjoying reading my WSJ paper. The baristas tried their best and were very friendly and know me by name and offer quick and friendly service, albeit has to be said there was never a big crowd and I occasionally had to share a dollar or a cigarette with a peaceful panhandler… Ironically, when I was reading the WSJ at my Starbucks during lunch one day last month I found out their decision to close 600 coffee shops in the US and for some reason, I knew this one would be one of those and a few days later when the details came out, I learned indeed that economic reality beat the noble initiative and indeed my Starbucks is going to close on me…   

Drive Trough Starbucks… 

While traveling around by car in the neighboring southern states, I also discovered another strange sight. In the South, about every other Interstate highway exit, had its Waffle House for decades and now suddenly Starbucks is starting to open coffee shops at Interstate exits… with a drive through window. While Starbucks was always about creating a cozy aromatic atmosphere to enjoy your coffee in relaxing comfy couches with the right back ground music, while reading your NY Times or checking your email, suddenly they try to attract the hasty and “too lazy to get out of your car” crowd. To my unbelief, none of these are on the closing stores list… yet.