Stealth Starbucks

These stores are operated in metropolitan areas to do market research on how customers react to experiments in coffee service and coffeehouse design.

These stores do not exhibit the traditional icons of the Starbucks brand, including the siren logo, the green aprons for baristas, and the Starbucks-specific "tall, grande, venti" coffee size terminology.

"[3][4] CEO Howard Schultz says the unbranded stores are a "laboratory for Starbucks".

It served wine and beer, and hosted live music and poetry readings.

[7][8] Another, Roy Street Coffee and Tea at 700 Broadway E., also on Capitol Hill opened in November as a "Tudor-style coffeehouse".