[Terra Nola documents the long-distance love affair between a New Yorker and New Orleans.]
All right folks, now I'm mad. In fact, to quote a famous movie, I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. Don't know where that line comes from? well, don't worry about it--we have other fish to fry, you and I, as do all the good people of New Orleans.
Lately there's been talk--well, actually it's a lot more than talk and that's what's got folks in such a flutter around here--that massive corporate giant Starbucks is finally about to sink its claws into the French Quarter by setting up shop in a vacant storefront in one of the Pontalba buildings in Jackson Square. Yikes! This is, I'm sorry, totally UNACCEPTABLE. Totally. And something MUST be done about it, immediately.
We have to get signatures or signs or whatever it takes to keep Starbucks out of the French Quarter. Even if it means chaining ourselves to the vacant storefront that once housed Le Madeliene (yes, another chain, albeit a smaller one and certainly the lesser of the two evils) with our leftover Mardi Gras beads we have to do everything in our power to keep Starbucks from setting up camp.
Look, I have nothing against Starbucks, although from the above rant it may seem otherwise. To the contrary I simply adore their iced chai lattes, so much so, in fact, that during my pregnancy (ok, and now too) I had one practically every day. And you know what? There are some good things about chains. For one, no matter where you go, whether it's a Starbucks in Brooklyn, NYC (yes, we have one and boy was it ever protested--eggs and all. Now you should see the line out the door!) or in New Orleans the coffee and everything else they serve is basically going to taste, and cost, exactly the same. There is no mystery, no surprise. Also, chains such as Starbucks provide a convenience factor--the idea is to get you in, get your money (a LOT of it) and get you off to work as quickly as possible.
I think Starbucks, and Home Depot and all these other chains have a place, just not in the French Quarter. It'd be like replacing our beloved Camellia Grill with a Denny's. Again, nothing against Denny's (those crazy fries! Those shakes! Those tacky bars!) but folks, we all know it's just not the same.
There is no Starbucks in my neighborhood, which, unlike much of NYC, is mostly residential and on the park. There are few non-residential local establishments and we'd like to keep it that way. One 'hood over, though, over the park, a Starbucks has found it's niche. It lives among the delis and restaurants and bars and other chains and generally makes nice with its neighbors. That part of town is not the beautiful Brooklyn you think of studded with brownstones and stoops. Rather, it's commercial and designed to handle a large influx of people, which is exactly what Starbucks does.
Another issue with putting a Starbucks in Jackson Square, aside from the obvious turf war sure to ensue between them and Cafe Du Monde is what all that caffeine is going to do to churchgoers attending St, Louis Cathedral. How will they be able to pay attention and get their souls saved buzzing around full of triple espressos? Seriously!
So I ask, just exactly what are we going to do about this? Local folks on Nola.com's message board are pushing for the site to go to another bidder, local chef Scott Boswell, who is well known for a fabulous restaurant relatively new to the FQ scene, Stella!.
I for one am prepared to put my money where my mouth is, or at least finger to keyboard. Maybe someone will start a petition, and maybe that someone will be me. Might be difficult given I'm all the way in NYC, but we have to start somewhere. We have to start period if we're going to preserve what makes the French Quarter, and the rest of New Orleans, as individual as it is.
1. Ok, I will take another Scott Boswell restaurant over a coffee shop any day. However, as a former Starbucks employee, I find myself jumping to their defense quite often. Let's not forget that La Madeline is a chain out of Texas and has stores from San Antonio to D.C.
As for local coffee shops, CC's is a Starbucks copycat down to the sizes and PJ's is franchised. Neither shop offers employee benefits near to what Starbucks does and the customer service is usually much worse.
I agree that a local entrepreneur should get the spot, but with national names like Penthouse and Hooters already in neon, should the press really be vilifying Starbucks?
Posted at 9:42AM on May 9th 2007 by Kelly