• Seattle Times, Friday, July 17, 2009 10:36 AM

15th Avenue Coffee and Tea -- the first of at least three remodeled Seattle-area stores that will bear the names of their neighborhoods rather than that of mother ship Starbucks -- is opening next week in the chain's "new rustic, eco-friendly style," Melissa Allison writes.

The new names are meant to give the stores "a community personality," says Tim Pfeiffer, Starbuck's svp of global design. Bags of the company's coffee and other products will be rebranded with the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea name. And they will serve wine and beer, host live music and poetry readings and sell espresso from an old-school manual machine.

Allison speaks to some local coffeehouse owners in Seattle who have observed Starbuck's researchers observing them in recent months. "They spent the last 12 months in our store up on 15th [Avenue] with these obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation,' " says Victrola owner Dan Ollis. "I wonder if they will want to participate in a Victrola Barista Smackdown?"

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