Starbucks opens first Reserve store

Starbucks opened its first upscale Starbucks Reserve store yesterday. The store is located in the same building as the company’s Seattle headquarters and is the first of 1000 Reserve stores that the company has planned.

The move is a way to defend itself against high-end coffee rivals like Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea or Blue Bottle Coffee, CNBC reports. Reserve is overseen by Starbucks co-founder Howard Schultz, who says that the store will help “re-define customer connection and continue to serve as a halo to the rest of the business.”

The new store features an expanded drink menu with new items such as nitro draft lattes as well as alcoholic drinks from a “mixology” bar. It also will serve food from Italian bakery Princi, with whom it reached a global licensing deal in 2016.

This news was first published in our sister publication, VMSD.