The buzz intensifies for Starbucks’ caffeinated crown jewel on Michigan Avenue

How do you take your coffee?

Maybe with a shot or two of showmanship? How about a jolt of high design, with murals and marble tiles? And don’t forget the brioche and cornetti, the tarts and truffles.

It’s all assembled in one very bold-flavored serving on Michigan Avenue, where Starbucks on Friday will open its largest Reserve Roastery, its sixth in the world.

A reinvention of the old Crate & Barrel space at 646 N. Michigan Ave., the store aspires to be both a shrine for coffee cognoscenti and a tourist draw. If you are strictly a brew-at-home or stop-at-Dunkin person, it will not be on your regular itinerary.

But if you don’t mind laying out more for an artisanal brew than a can of Maxwell House will cost you at Jewel, the Roastery is a must visit. In a city where the careless can stumble over coffee shops, the Roastery elevates the product to the heady status of experiential retailing.

“This has been a five-year experience for Starbucks, a journey where we wanted to create an immersive customer experience around roasting, brewing small-batch coffee, the pinnacle of customer experience around all things coffee,” said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson.

Santiago Covarrubias/For the Sun-Times

The company opened the place Tuesday for a media tour and for selected employees and VIPs. The centerpiece is the roaster, seen right away when you enter, where a sign or helpful staff will tell you what’s being brewed in a 25-pound batch. The roastery serves only specialty coffee brewed on site.

There’s a 56-foot steel cask where the roasted beans rest and cool before being transported Willy Wonka-style via pipes above customers’ heads. You can watch the whole process, and the whooshing will form a backdrop for conversations. The beans will be deposited at each serving station. “This is a lot like a coffee hourglass,” said Jill Enomoto, Starbucks vice president of design.

Santiago Covarrubias/For the Sun-Times

It’s part of an effort to make retailing relevant by delivering what Amazon cannot. Instead of competing on price or breadth of products, the appeal is an exclusive product in an elevated setting. There is seating with commanding views of Michigan Avenue or near a fireplace.

An important figure in the venture is Gordon Segal, former CEO of Crate & Barrel, whose family trust owns the roastery’s building. He said Starbucks signed a 25-year lease for the building’s 35,000 square feet.

The Crate & Barrel closed in 2018. Segal said that once he knew the store would exit, he looked for an operation worthy of a glass-wrapped, modernist space. It helped that he had a connection with former Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, who used to sell to Crate & Barrel before he switched from furniture to coffee.

“I was here at every stage of the design and every stage of the construction,” Segal said. He called the result “the best experiential retailing you’ll see anywhere in the United States.”

Santiago Covarrubias/For the Sun-Times

Segal said he has no doubt of the venture’s success. “The roasting smell. The bakery smell. Watching the preparations. Watching the kitchens behind every counter. The bar is important. It’s so wonderful,’’ he said. “I’m more worried about how crowded it’s going to be than how busy it’s going to be.”

Yes, there’s a bar on the fourth floor, where patrons can get cocktails, coffee-infused drinks and a curated selection of beers. That would be for your nightcap after you’ve had the delicacies from the Princi café on the second floor and the “experiential coffee bar” on the third floor. The top floor will have a rooftop for city-gazing in warmer weather.

Shauna McKenzie-Lee, managing director of the roastery, said about 200 people will work there. They were drawn from other Starbucks and have received training for their new roles. “I looked at this as a challenge. It was a chance to improve myself and pick up some new skills,” said a barista who spoke despite a company order not to speak to reporters. “I can tell you anything about these coffees.”

Santiago Covarrubias/For the Sun-Times

The employees will have to do a lot of talking. In contrast to the production orientation of the typical Starbucks, this one has no menu boards. Menu cards on the counter are hard to spot, so customers will do a lot of inquiring about what’s available and at what cost. They will mill around to eye the beans for sale: $22 per half pound from Costa Rica, $40 from Hawaii.

But company executives said the Chicago operation includes all they have learned from their other roasteries in Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York and Tokyo.

Johnson said he wanted one in Chicago because of the company’s history here. In 1987, Chicago got the first Starbucks outside of the Pacific Northwest. In 1993, the first airport Starbucks opened at O’Hare and in 1995, Rush Street got the largest Starbucks built up to that time, Johnson said.

He said he was elated to be in an “iconic building” that will allow copious natural light, even in sunshine-deprived winter.

But on Tuesday, the windows were covered to thwart the curious. Everybody will have to wait to Friday to see the roasting, the stacks of coffee beans along the Erie Street windows that will herald what’s being served, and the design elements inside, such as a curved escalator said to be the first in the Midwest.

And if you have to know, a basic cup of joe will set you back $4 to $5, higher for the rare flights served upstairs.

But you’re on Michigan Avenue, so why ask?