Starbucks Coffee, Old Town Location / review

200 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 867-0186

I’m leaning toward giving this place one star, and am not very happy about doing so. Starbucks tends to be a very nice chain, and with one exception, the staff at this location are typical in this regard - very pleasant to deal with. The other customers seem friendly enough, in a "you’re not going to ask me for change, are you" near north side kind of way - don’t expect to find any conversations at this place with anybody that you didn’t arrive with, but people will be nice enough to those around them as each finds his own way to caffeinated solitude off in the corner of his choice.

What he won’t be finding his way to is peace and quiet, because the one exception I alluded to above was the manager. A typical experience was one had at around 6:45 this last Saturday. The man had the piped in music playing at about the same volume that most people seem to be used to watching their TVs at in their own living rooms. Wall to wall Frank Sinatra that night, no getting away from it unless one went to those washrooms which are often as fragrant as a previous user described. I sat there with my first cup, trying to journal, but if you’ve ever heard Sinatra, you can probably guess what happened - I’d start to gather my thoughts, and as I reached to write something down BOOM! would come Sinatra’s next crescendo, because the man couldn’t seem to bear the thought of having less than one of those per minute.

If you’re into that, and I know that many people are, there’s nothing wrong with that, but many people aren’t, and when the manager insists on using the sound system as a boombox, their experience is being ruined without reason - after all, what is to keep those customers who do want to hear loud music from bringing their ipods and headphones? Yes, there are much louder places - Mother’s comes to mind - and the sound level here won’t cause actual pain, but this isn’t a bar, this is a coffeehouse. People go there to read, to talk with companions, to engage in quiet time activities that are not improved in any way by music that nobody could even begin to ignore.

Somebody that night had the same thought as I’m sure many others did as well, judging from the large number of books out that night and the looks of frustration as Sinatra came on for the fifth time in a row and the music was turned up, and went up to the register to politely point out that the music was getting to be more of a nuisance than a pleasure. The woman working the register, very pleasantly and professionally apologized for the annoyance and asked the manager, who was just inside the next room, to please turn the music down. Ten minutes later, nothing had changed and the customer left.

"Best idea anybody has had all night", I thought to myself, gulping down the remains of my drink and heading out into the evening, the street noise that greeted me as I exited coming as sweet relief by comparison. I think that I’ll go to the Bourgeois Pig next time.

First Posted: 10/16/2007
Yelp Rating: Two Stars