Starbucks opened a THIRD store at the U-Village (an outdoor shopping plaza located next to the University of Washington).  It’s next to Din Tai Feng (of absurd soup dumpling following) and Molly Moons (of local ice cream mogul fame).  It’s called Starbucks Reserve specifically, though I’m not too sure why.  Did they need a 3rd Starbucks here?  Yes, they did.  The other two are either a) packed with college kids studying or b) on the other end of the wet parking lot.  This Starbucks rifts on the design of their rose gold holiday cups – angled, sophisticated, warm hued.  You see it in the wood, the metal accents, and the clean lines.  This is the sophisticated Starbucks and it serves wine and small plates.  There are a couple of other Starbucks in the Seattle area that have been doing this (Olive Way, Madison Park, Issaquah, Roy Street Coffee), but this is the first one to get a special name.  I’m guessing it’s Starbucks foray into line extension rather than diversity.

They have bacon wrapped dates, brie plates, chicken skewers, flatbread just to name a few items.  I had the truffle mac and cheese.  Yes, truffle mac and cheese.  Golden crunchy crust, white cheddar, whiff of truffle oil.  I’m not sure how much it cost me, but it was delicious for coffee shop food, though it doesn’t pair well with coffee.  I think it was meant for the Riesling…  I knew that though. I’d recommend it, enough that I’m blogging about it instead of writing my annual review…  😛