WICKER PARK — The tiny Starbucks at Wicker Park's Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues intersection reopened as the city's first Starbucks Reserve coffee bar at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Starbucks was closed for the revamp since Jan. 17.
The reopening offers more space — as many as 40 seats along a coffee bar, at a community table and at a counter overlooking the street — and a new entrance on North Avenue due to the fact the cafe expanded into an adjacent storefront that was formerly home to City Soles, a shoe store that relocated.
The spot will be the first in Chicago for Starbucks and the 13th for the Seattle-based company, following a Reserve Bar in suburban Lake Forest that opened last fall.
Reserve bars specialize in small-batch coffee and put a new emphasis on different brewing methods.
In addition to the Wicker Park Starbucks, a Starbucks in the Wrigley Field Office Building complex is also planning to become a Reserve bar, but later in the year.
In New York, the newly opened Reserve stores have cold brew on tap and special Reserve espresso drinks like a Smoked Butterscotch Latte and a Shakerato Bianco.
Located in the triangular 1880s-era "Black Building Trust" that straddles Damen, Milwaukee and North avenues, the previous Starbucks was about 600 square feet and offered just a few chairs for customers.
The new space is staffed by the same workers who manned the previous spot, such as Mark Jamieson.
"This has been three years in the making," Jamieson said on Sunday afternoon while preparing a latte. The veteran Starbucks employee added, "The regulars are excited; overall everyone is really pumped."
Folks with dogs and strollers, however, might be sad to see that a walk-up window with a doorbell for ordering was removed in the expansion.
A barista said that the walk-up window could not be accommodated in the redesign.
When Starbucks opened in 2002, protesters angry about the encroachment of a national brand and the closure of its predecessor, indie staple Cafe Cafeina, shattered windows, according to reports.
Last year, Marshall Black, the building's owner and Starbucks' landlord, said that Starbucks had signed a lease to rent out the additional 2,100-square-foot spot next door. The added space will allow for more seating and a bathroom, Black said.
Starbucks representatives have been in talks with Black for at least three years about the expansion.
