Kraig's new store

Finally, after months of preparation and anticipation the new Brewery Blocks Starbucks in Portland is open!  Kraig, Jenn, and the rest of the team worked really hard last week to get the store into shape to open.  Friday night was the VIP night where Kraig led a coffee tasting for ~150 important folks, from the design team to facilities managers to the President of Starbucks USA, Cliff Burrows.  Kraig was obviously honored to have been tapped to do the tasting, and by all accounts it went perfectly!

Kraig leading the tasting- that's Cliff Burrows right behind him!  

The store has been in the news a lot recently, so check out the stories and photos from these sources:

Oregon Live

PDX Food Press

KGW Local News  This particular article has the TV news story video.  You can see Kraig in the background at -2:47 (same at -1:32) in the top left corner, and again at -0:27 in the top right corner, leading Clover training.

Starbucks Melody  She is a well-known Starbucks blogger and Seattle-based lawyer (she's unaffiliated with the company, just a huge fan).  She was invited to the VIP event but walked in JUST after Kraig's tasting.  Ack!

Apparently, someone filmed Kraig's tasting so he's trying to get ahold of that video clip.

Owen and I attended the store's soft opening/Family and Friends event on Sunday the 12th.  It was very exciting- live music and hundreds and hundreds of "customers" (the drinks and pastry were free; alcohol and some food had to be purchased).  Everyone seemed very impressed with the store's design, which is unlike any other.  Kraig said the thing that he heard the most from outside Starbucks partners was how well the team worked together- a great compliment considering they were all hand-picked from many different locations throughout Portland and had never worked together before!  He agrees that the team has great chemistry and are all wonderful baristas.  He's excited to get to be a part of it, of course!

 Kraig and Jenn

 Sorry for the blur- working on the line during the soft opening.  

Fun for Kraig since he's usually running the floor and can't be on espresso bar :)

Subtle- but see his Coffee Master apron?  He's the only Coffee Master in Portland so far
and will be helping to certify the next round.  

It was the most successful soft opening in Starbucks history in terms of sales.  Managers from the other concept stores in Seattle came for the opening and were highly impressed by the alcohol and Clover coffee sales (Clover is individually brewed coffee).  Brewery Blocks' numbers blew all of theirs out of the water, so the team is hopeful that those numbers are a good indicator of how popular the store will be.  Update: the numbers from the first few days are keeping with this trend.  Way to go!

Owen and I are so proud of all the work Kraig has done to open the store and we're all excited to see how well the store does over the next few months.