Starbucks unveiled its new everyday coffee brew--the Pike Place Roast--in stores today. The Seattle-based chain's press release explains the new brew has "Starbucks signature bold flavor with a smoother finish balanced by soft acidity and subtle, rich flavors of cocoa and toasted nuts." Additionally, the stores indicate when the coffee was roasted and will "brew smaller batches with a hold time of no more than 30 minutes." A store in Chicago actually ran out......

In what will be the largest class action suit ever brought by New York restaurant employees, employees are suing Starbucks for violating a state law that prohibits management from receiving part of workers’ tips. At Starbucks, shift supervisors share the pooled tips with baristas, prompting a suit from former Forest Hills barista Jeana Barenboim, on behalf of at least 2,000 Starbucks baristas in NY who are owed at least $5 million. The lawsuit comes on......

With Starbucks stock plummeting – it lost half its value in the past 15 months – C.E.O. Howard Schultz spent yesterday reassuring thousands of anxious shareholders that everything would soon be right as rain, once some new changes “restore an authentic coffeehouse experience to the company’s stores,” as the Times puts it. It’s fun to watch corporations trying to “restore” authenticity, like when elderly bluebloods try dressing “casually” in their creased blue jeans. The behemoth......

Complaining about the proliferation of bank branches in New York City has almost become cliche, but City Planning officials are taking steps to enact zoning restrictions along 125th St. in Manhattan that would limit the number of bank branches on the main drag of Harlem. The idea is that bank branches can have a deadening effect on pedestrian use of a an area because they take up space that could be used for arts, entertainment,......

Whether it was a PR stunt or a legit "teach-in" on espresso, Starbucks shut down for three full hours last night to train baristas --leaving the 5:30 to 8:30pm coffee crowd out in the cold. Today they are back, with a new take on "the customer is always right" policy posted about their stores; it reads: "Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we'll make it right." Reportedly they'll......

Today Starbucks all over are closing for 190 caffeine-free minutes. The blackout (hold the cream and sugar) is set for 5:30pm, so be prepared for a temporary Venti Soy Latte drought. Even more disturbing for Starbuckistas, however, is the sign above. The "Dear John" letter is from an 8th Street outlet (between 5th and University) and addressed to its loyal patrons. A closing Starbucks? Creepy, indeed. As for the 8th Street regulars, looks like......

Last week there was a shooting outside of a Starbucks on 56th Street, yesterday morning a man was robbed and killed on East 39th Street, and now the NYPD is reporting that three people were stabbed near 45th and 5th at lunchtime today. There are currently some conflicting reports; WNBC says that it all went down on a sidewalk and that two people suffered stab wounds to the hand while a third was cut in......

Improv Everywhere was at it again recently. Three agents represented this time around, bringing IE's latest mission to Starbucks, where they managed to confuse fellow patrons by bringing in their old, clunky desktop computers (complete with WIndows 95!). The trio hooked up their time machines and got to work, one even able to surf the World Wide Web. For those who didn't think Starbucks had set up a computer lab as a service to their......

After the startling Midtown robbery yesterday afternoon in which a man was beaten and robbed of $149,000 in cash on the street, the police are still looking for the suspect. The victim, Seton Ijams, a music management company executive, had just visited a Chase bank, and police believe it may have been an inside job. Ijams was "jumped" by the gun-wielding robber outside the Starbucks at 120 West 56th Street and then dragged along the......

There's trouble brewin' at everyones favorite chain coffee shop. WCBS is reporting that there has been a shooting at a midtown Starbucks. The BNN confirms with a location: 120 W 56th Street, and reports a possible robbery as well. The NYPD are currently still looking for the suspect. UPDATE: The shooting took place outside of the Starbucks and WNBC is reporting that the NYPD, based on preliminary information, believes the incident was part of a......

The Battleship Potemkin, by dietrich at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on East 33rd St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, a pedestrian struck on 50th Ave. and 45th St. in Queens, and a shooting on Schenectady Ave. and Lincoln Pl. in Brooklyn. In three separate incidents yesterday, individuals were struck by subway trains. Two men were killed and the third was taken to Bellevue Hospital. Insurance fraud isn't brain surgery, until......

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826......

Derek Jeter discusses his new venture - a Derek Jeter-branded 24 Hour Fitness Club in the Madison Square Park area; photograph by Tien Mao From a new NYC sports club bearing his name to the last season at Yankees Stadium, Derek Jeter has a busy year ahead of him. Gothamist asked the Yankees captain about his partnership with 24 Hour Fitness to bringing 24 Hour Fitness - Derek Jeter gyms to the city and......

Image: Bernie Hou. Sorry Reverend Billy, it’s only for three hours. For those of you who haven’t heard, all 7,100 “standalone” Starbucks in the United States will close for 180 tense, irritable minutes, starting at 5:30pm on February 26th. (That’s a Tuesday.) Now don’t let panic take over – this has nothing to do with Starbucks' "sinister Phase Two" of operations; it’s planned to facilitate the retraining of their 135,000-strong army. Come 8:30pm, this newly......

A rendering for a building that will replace a Cooper Union engineering building has emerged (above). Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, the 440,000-square-foot mixed-use building will replace the brown tribute to banality that currently hunkers across from the historic 1859 Cooper Union Foundation building. The 51 Astor Place building is to be demolished; the fate of the connected Starbucks (between Third and Fouth Avenues) is uncertain. The Observer says the proposed building “will......

Photo by Jack McFadden. This photo, taken on 5th & Union, pretty much sums up the war going on in Brooklyn. The fictional (but not really) "Slope Trail" includes a doggie bakery, luxury condos, a gentrified playground and spot to procure pricey Brooklyn T's. Everything you'd expect on an urban hike. The stencil even includes a "controversial" stroller being pushed by a parent (or nanny!) who is clearly holding a Starbucks coffee. We just......

Wouldn’t be caught dead with a “latte” from Starbucks or a Coolata from Dunkin Donuts? Well, you haven’t reached the summit of coffee snobbery until you’ve had the self-proclaimed “ultimate” cup of coffee, expertly prepared by computers and pneumatic tubes at the Lower East Side’s Roasting Plant. Since opening last spring, business has been hopping at the sleek Orchard Street café; coffee aficionados are drawn back as much for the fresh coffee as for......

Anthony Lappé is a writer, blogger, television producer and executive editor of GNN.tv, the web site for the Guerrilla News Network. He's written for mainstream press like the Times and was the National Affairs Editor for Black Book, and in 2003 he collaborated on the award-winning Showtime documentary about Iraq called BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge, which covered the front lines of the simmering guerrilla war in Iraq in 2003. Part of what......

A Times article on the popularity of “fast-casual” restaurants continues to cause some major head scratching. In straightforward expansionist news, the article reported that the Five Guys burger chain plan on opening 29 new local outlets in the next 8 years, and Hale and Hearty is busy putting the finishing touches on its 20,000 square foot Williamsburg production facility. But the trend spotting that motivated the article remains dubious. Ostensibly about “fast-casual” restaurants – defined......

In June of 2007, Mark Malkoff made news with his attempt, documented in a funny video, to patronize each of Manhattan’s 171 Starbucks in a single day. Now the Comedy Central staffer is back in the press with his latest quirky idea; he spent last week living in the Paramus, New Jersey IKEA to avoid his fumigated apartment. The strange experiment has been humorously documented on his website; we got him on the phone in......

THEATER: Under the Radar, arguably New York’s most exciting theater festival, begins today at The Public Theater and a few other odd locations like the Whitehall Ferry terminal. (There are also a few shows at the Classic Theatre of Harlem, P.S. 122 and The Kitchen.) One of the most buzzed about site-specific shows is Etiquette by the London company Rotozaza. It was a surprise hit at last year’s Edinburgh Festival; here the experience takes place......

The guy who spent $369.14 in a quixotic attempt to patronize each of Manhattan’s 171 Starbucks in a single day is back in the news, and this time it’s the corporate giant that’s helping him out. Comic Mark Malkoff will be living at the Paramus, NJ IKEA for the next week while his apartment is fumigated. And of course, he’ll be documenting every waking moment. Here’s the first installment: We seem to recall entire weeks......

As chains take over every nook and cranny of this city, some people in the East Village are forming a united front against them. The Villager reports on the corporate takeover, the resistance and the new spin on this story as old as time. Multiple Starbucks in Astor Place act as a welcome sign to the East Village, but the East Village Community Coalition would like to say good riddance to them, and more than......

Starbucks rarely fails to provoke strong opinions among a group of people, even including its employees. Earlier today we posted on a barista who sent a memo to the company's corporate HQ to express her displeasure with a new policy of identifying beverages made with skim or low-fat milk and artificial sweetener as Skinny. Our readers weighed in with their own opinions on the matter. Reader msk actually encountered a group of Starbucks baristas......

The non-official Starbucks Gossip Blog posted a letter Wednesday that one disgruntled New York employee fired off to the company’s top brass. The barista wrote not to protest Starbucks’s aggressive ubiquity, their resistance to fair trade coffee, or their union busting tactics. No sir, she’s up in arms about the new company policy instructing employees to refer to drinks made with sugar-free syrup, non-fat milk, and no whipped cream as “Skinny.” The unidentified author acknowledges......

At the stroke of midnight on January 1st, New York comedian Amy Borkowsky began her cellibacy project, a temporary resolution that she explains is "not about giving up sex. I’m giving up something much harder than that.” She's casting aside her cell phone, after questioning how much her dependency on it has affected her quality of life.She also notes that the so-called communication device often keeps her from truly communicating, citing the familiar scenario of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual elevator rescue on Washington Ave. in Brooklyn, a pipe explosion on Richmond Terrace on Staten Island, and a person fatally struck by an A train at Van Siclen and Pitken Ave. in Brooklyn. NYC already has 91,000 practicing attorneys, but we can expect a lot more. Nearly 11,000 freshly minted JDs sat for the bar this summer and more than 70% of them passed. A 63-year-old man......

There are plenty of Starbucks in Manhattan (over 170), but if you head over to Brooklyn -- you'll see the streets are mostly void of discarded Venti cups and hardly anyone has heard Josh Groban's new Christmas album. But things are about to change, chain-haters beware.A recent Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable meeting revealed that retail giants such as Starbucks, Duane Reade pharmacies and Chase Bank are planning to double and in some cases triple their......

New Yorkers like to joke about the spread of chain drugstores, bank branches, and Starbucks in the city, but residents of Sunnyside, Queens can claim bragging rights in a shining example of the phenomena. Greenpoint Avenue is home to two adjacent Rite Aid drugstores, which sit literally right next to each other. According to the Daily News, it initially appears to be one giant store, but, in fact, they are two separately owned and operated......

New York seems to have a love/hate relationship with the branded beanery Starbucks (their seasonal Peppermint Mochas sure are tasty, but their sterile generic storefronts keep the siren's call muted). While the local mom and pop collects our $3/day coffee allowance, there are plenty lining up at the corner 'Bucks for their daily buzz. Alas, there is now a book to appease the haters and the adoring herds of the establishment. Taylor Clark has gone......