Recently in Starbucks Category

I won't go into excruciating detail about the Daily News' recent move after about 20 years on Oxnard Street in Warner Center to the shared but infinitely fancier confines of the nearby Warner Gateway office park (where Owensmouth Avenue meets the Ventura Freeway), what with the clean carpets, lack of grime on everything we didn't bring with us (meaning there's still plenty of grime to be had), and actual windows.

But there's one thing I will talk about:

Better coffee.

The Organic to Go company has a little cafe on "campus" (is that the right word for this grouping of buildings?) and while the place looks pretty nice, the employees are friendly (especially the ever-cheerful Damon) and the food looks OK (haven't had more than a bagel thus far), the one thing Damon and Co. do absolutely right is coffee.

All I'm saying is that the coffee at Organic to Go rocks extremely hard.

I had the Peru blend today, and it rivals the dark roasts at both Coffee Bean (Organic's is less bitter but still full-flavored) and Starbucks (which, if you follow this blog, you know is gutting the very core of its business with its insistence on pushing the mild, nondescript Pike Place Roast in place of its signature dark blends).

And best of all, at $1.80 for a large coffee, Organic to Go's coffee is not only better but cheaper than that at both S*Bucks and Coffee Bean.

Wait ... it gets better.

Organic to Go even has one of those "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards, which Starbucks never had and Coffee Bean abandoned at least two years ago, if I remember correctly (and I very well may not).

So yes, the moles of the Los Angeles Daily News have a clean carpet, phones not caked with two decades' accumulated grime, no rat traps under my desk (and yes, years ago I did unwittingly grab one — rat included — while looking for an errant pen on the floor), bathrooms with no-touch fixtures that'll probably save me six communicable diseases per year and real windows to the outside world (which here includes quite a few trees).

Still, nothing beats good coffee.

The Google Map set up by the Seattle Times to track Starbucks closings across the country has another L.A.-area Starbucks that is reportedly slated to close:

820 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA
According to a Seattle Times reader.

Again, this is unconfirmed, but I can see that happening, because there's literally two Starbucks on every block on Montana Avenue. There's a busy one on Montana and 7th Street, so 820 Montana is a mere block away.

Deep in the comments at Starbucks Gossip, I learned:

Today I heard in Burbank CA, Victory and Empire was closing, but the manager doesn't even know yet. I am in a neighboring district and found out before her. that sux.

That would be this outlet:

Victory & Empire, Burbank
1711 North Victory Place
Burbank, CA 91502
818-843-3979

A few more of these and I might start a map of my own. Until then, there's the Google Map started by the Seattle Times.

View Larger Map

Hey, my buddy Jason Kandel isn't the only guy who knows how to use these interactive maps. The Seattle Times has one that is designed to show as many of the 600-odd Starbucks locations slated to close in the mega-chain's current downsizing.

So far the map, which relies on reports from baristas and others in the know, only has about 10 locations. I'll be keeping an eye out for when it starts to fill out, and I'll let you know what I find.

Go here for the full map, along with a note on each alleged Starbucks closure. ... Or just look at the map above. Thanks Google and Seattle Times!

Update: A new source of Starbucks closure information is the Starbucks Closing blog.

As always, the best place to take Starbucks' pulse is Starbucks Gossip.

California will not escape when it comes to Starbucks closures, according to this missive from Convenience Store News (that's a publication — can you believe it?):

Starbucks officials said the closures are happening in "all major U.S. markets" between late July and March. Florida and California are among the largest states affected, spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil told Bloomberg News.

There were 2,496 stores in California and 625 in Florida in March. Those two states have been especially hard hit by the real-estate downturn and credit crisis.

I roll into Starbucks a bit after 9. There's barely any line at all.

I ask for the venti drip, dark roast.

They actually have it.

The guy fills the cup, gives it to me, runs my Starbucks card through the register, I put in the half-and-half and I'm out.

And yes, it was good for me, too.

I'll let you, the reader, ponder.

I said it at 7 a.m.:

Placing Pike Place Roast, not just above all other light roasts but above all other kinds of drip coffee is Starbucks' jump the shark moment.

What Starbucks is really saying:

"Drip coffee is a very small part of our business, we have to dump a lot of unused coffee, and profits on drip coffee are small when compared to those of our other beverages. Therefore we can substitute not-very-clever marketing for taste and quality and hope that the coffee-drinking public buys it. If they don't, who cares? We'll save money on an unpopular product, have made our effort and can go back to pushing the espresso-based blended drinks that are our true profit center and passion."

Starbucks Coffee giving up on coffee: It's the company's jump the shark moment.

We were at the Third Street Promenade on Saturday and found ourselves at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Now there's a place that always has dark roast brewing ... and never mind that the average Coffee Bean light roast is way better than the average Starbucks light roast.

Cancel that. There is no other light roast at Starbucks other than Pike Place Roast.

Not that I care, since I always choose dark above light.

But if Coffee Bean stays committed to coffee — in a way that Starbucks is not, that says a lot.

It's funny, saying that Starbucks has abandoned coffee, the beverage. But it's pretty much true.

What I'm really saying: Placing Pike Place Roast, not just above all other light roasts but above all other kinds of drip coffee is Starbucks' jump the shark moment.

After weeks of laziness, I finally hooked up my Starbucks card to the free AT&T wireless Internet service available at many of the company's zillion stores.

The catch, such as it is, is that you must have a Starbucks card — one of those little gift-card-like things that can carry a balance. That card must have a balance, have been used recently ... and you get two consecutive hours of service:

Complimentary Wi-Fi for Starbucks customers When you register your Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month, you'll receive two consecutive hours a day of complimentary Wi-Fi, courtesy of AT&T.

Complimentary Wi-Fi for AT&T DSL customers
AT&Ts more than 12 million DSL customers already qualify for free Wi-Fi at their neighborhood Starbucks.

Competitive pricing for paid Wi-Fi
All other customers can receive two consecutive hours of Wi-Fi access for $3.99.

So if you already have AT&T broadband service, and if you live in the L.A. area, chances are good that you do, you can get the free Wi-Fi without even registering your card. (I have DSL Extreme, which uses AT&T's lines but its own routers and equipment, and thus doesn't qualify, but I figure two hours should do it for me.

For those hankering to know more about my experience from the technical side — and I know you do, especially you, Sharon Kaplan — I tested the broadband speed at this very Starbucks with the CNET Bandwidth Meter Speed Test and got the following results:

509.3 Kbps

That's not bad for 802.11b wireless. For comparison's sake, the average DSL connection promises bandwidth between 384 Kbps and 1.5 Mbps. My home connection used to hover around 1 Mbps but has been more 600 Kbps since an AT&T "repair" restored the connection when it was down, rendering it operable but slower.

But free and 509 Kpbs are totally acceptable things when grouped together.

And since this laptop, the venerable $15 Laptop, a 1999-vintage Compaq Armada 7770dmt running Puppy Linux 2.13 and the Seamonkey Web browser, has no battery (but curiously can accommodate two — one in the battery slot and a second in the CD/floppy slot), I needed electrical power and found it. Teat of Starbucks, I'm sucking on you pretty darned hard.

And in case you were wondering — and I know you were — they were out of dark roast when I reached the front of the line. The baristas were ready to make a fresh batch, but I'm tired of complaining and have resigned myself to a life marked by cup after cup of Pike Place Roast. I'm tired of waiting, tired of complaining, and free Wi-Fi is going a long way toward pacifying me.

Score one for Howard Schultz. I like free.