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January032006

Checking the checkers: Harlem's Starbucks

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , ,

Our not-so-far-flung correspondent T.D.V. writes:


I was just reading the Talks of the Town for the 1/09 issue, and, fearing that the item about Harlem's only Starbucks being at 125th and Lenox was false, I embarked upon an intelligence mission. I used to pass one on Broadway near 138th on my way out of the 137th St. City College 1-train stop. I read an article a while back about how all of the local drug dealers, who were standing outside all day, used the restrooms frequently and were excellent tippers. I found an item online [link TK from probably sleeping correspondent] about how a neighborhood group fought last year to have the location stay open despite plummeting sales. Intriguing! I called the old number, and apparently it's been reassigned to another business, but I couldn't understand what the name was when the person answered the phone. Hmm. [Update: An inital call suggests it's been reassigned to another Starbucks, indicating a citywide macchiato-industrial-complex Bloomberg conspiracy. Developing.]

Thanks! Let's get to the bottom of this. Elsewhere, in the Modesto Bee, Lisa Masson calls Starbucks "America's favorite drug dealer." For no other reason except that it's interesting, here's Adam Gopnik's 2004 piece on the transformation(s) of Times Square. I do like Gopnik sometimes, and when he's good (Ravioli, &c.), he should be rewarded.

Update: The 138th St. Starbucks has indeed gone out of business; if you're feeling nostalgic, you can see a photo of it here alongside its fallen comrades. Thanks, esteemed clarifier! All this closed-Starbucks talk is making me think of that Starbucks in the East Village—in the Veselka vicinity—that closed to the triumphant jeers of the locals, who took it as a tiny victory for something or other. Alas, another store opened shortly afterward, across the street from the old location. Never mind!

Update update: Reader Joyce Cohen, who, unlike me, is so alert she may not even need skim lattes (not from Starbucks; we don't have one in Williamsburg yet, although we do have a Subway) to get her eyes open, writes:

The Modesto Bee piece is dated summer 2005, but Jim Romenesko on Starbucks Gossip (starbucksgossip.typepad.com) had already been calling it America's favorite drug dealer for, I believe, at least a year. I have no idea where the phrase originated.

I am almost certain that the piece about keeping the Harlem Starbucks open was from the NYT City section, only I cannot seem to find it now.

Perhaps another reader would like to go and look for that. I'm liking this editorial role here on emdashes; maybe 2006 will be all about assigning things to other people.

Revisit this emdashes post that tells you how to avoid Starbucks altogether. No, not in the altogether—it's much too cold out.

1 comments

Comments

The Starbucks in Harlem is such a tease! It looks like a Starbucks and tastes like a Starbucks, but its just not a full-flavored Starbucks. The biggest problem? No space. There are only a handful of tables in which to sit, and if you are lucky enough to get a seat there is no space in which to spread your newspaper/books/etc. It's ironic, really, because of the changing face of the neighborhood; people moving uptown for more space.... Better let them know they're not going to find it in Harlem's Starbucks!

Bagel in HarlemFebruary 09, 2006

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