Well, the Starbucks opened on Main Street and I stopped in.
Serious guilt cash was well spent on theming as details abound, and it occurred to me that almost the entire footprint of the old Market House entry is now open queue. This is the most serious issue even more than the Starbucks brand. The focus of the room is a lit deli case embedded in the queue and a part of the counter system. Did not seem like there were any "must-have" Disney only signature items. I would have loved to try a Disneyland Market House blend VIA, or and "1871 Blend" made just for them. Or a Disneyland SB Card. Nothing that I could see off hand.
They did create a lush and well detailed "bohemia of the nineteenth century" library space to sip your coffee and relax with the Pot Belly Stove. Really great, but felt a touch unrelated to the market. Main Street does need spaces you can just chill in and this is a welcome addition. I did notice that the soundtrack had changed on the "party line" telephones. The new soundtrack has people discussing how much they loved or were taken with or could not get enough of..coffee. Had to laugh. Product placement is in the details my friends. They did Steampunk lights made from Espresso machines and a few other fun things, but the overall feel comes not from the excess of victorian charm, but from the needs of the "format". The mass sales process shapes the experience, and the lack of anything unique in the offerings hurts the fact that a favorite brand is at the park. There should be as much care in the details of what is sold as there is in the room. There was even a greeter saying "Welcome to the Market House" to me. Was it an attempt to convince me that it wasn't a Starbucks with a name tag? "Pay no attention to the man behind the Espresso machine! It's still has the old Stove, look!"..I'm just teasing, but there is a truth in all of this. It is what it is, even with lush moldings and fonts. Like any mass Disney food facility, you have the dual queue leading to the bank of registers, the brightly lit deli case of packaged goods, and in this case, typical Starbucks products like Via to purchase while in line. The fact that two more are going into DTD just outside the berm makes this even less unique and sets up the weakest aspect of the brand, being ubiquitous. The world has changed and so be it. Chill out and have a legal stimulant. Main Street as a land is by design intended to be the alternative, small town caught up in change, it taught you as it's own "endangered species of American life" not so much about victorian culture, but that it's world was still innocent, simple and that it's tempo was set by hoofbeats. All of these experiences going from boutique to mass erodes that uniqueness, Starbucks is just the latest billboard on that slippery highway.
I also left thinking about the wisdom of using valuable themed real estate for merely storing people. Is the experience better outside lining up on the street, or being in a low ceiling switchback in a throng? It's a tough one. When what could have been an entire shop, basically becomes a massive queue as your first impression (like a huge parking lot in front of the distant Best Buy), then you realize that some food concepts that require individual preparation (handmade coffee, scooped ice cream) do not really scale well, or maybe it would be better to let the line manage itself outside as when you see it's too long you come back later. It has worked for over 50 years at the Ice Cream window just outside, or the Corn Dog Truck. Lines limit themselves. I have seen the Gibson Girl queue filled in summer and it looks daunting and I will never get in it. I do however wait in the cone shop outdoor line but it is never super long. Just a thought to discuss. I think WDI/SQS did what it could to make this very nice indeed, but it is what it is.
