Forthcoming Winnetka Starbucks Evokes Mixed Feelings from Local Indigents, Middle Schoolers

By Jumilla Lubao, special to the Quilt.

DATELINE: SHERMAN WAY

A Starbucks café slated to open on the corner of Winnetka Avenue and Sherman Way, in Winnetka’s bustling Shermetka neighborhood, has some locals expressing mixed feelings about the chain’s newest location even before the first pot of coffee is brewed.

“Aw, hell no, man — not Starbucks,” says Ernie 'Nalgas' Holvik as he notices the 'Coming Soon' banners on the building currently under renovation, “They’re too expensive!”  

Winnetka’s first Starbucks will be located in a building formerly occupied by Burger King. Despite managing to screw up over 98% of drive-thru orders and 76% of dine-in orders, the fast-food restaurant, which closed earlier this year, was much loved by the community.

Winnetka's beloved Burger King is being renovated and retrofitted to reopen as the area's first
Starbucks, a change that could impact both local pre-teens and various hangers-around. Staff photo.

“It's right at four different bus stops so me an’ my old lady spent a lot of time here," says Holvik, who currently works part-time in and around Woodland Hills as a residential Amazon package acquisition specialist. "You position yourself behind one of the columns in the front of the dining area and whoever’s at the register can’t see you, so you could hang out all day sipping your Four Loko. The trick is to crack open the can before you come in. Because you can’t do it quietly.”

Says John A. Sutter Middle School student Carmen Bailor, “I was like oh no BK is closed, that totally sucks!” The seventh grader explains that she and her friends would go there after school and purchase a small order of fries. “Then we’d like all ask for water cups and sneak soda from the soda machine when [the counter staff] wasn’t looking.

“I guess we’ll do the same thing at Starbucks when it opens, only with coffee. Or those unicorn drinks I heard about. So, yeah, it’ll be cool. They have a dollar menu, right?”

Nalgas, too, is starting to see the glass — or coffee cup — as half-full: “Well, I don't think [Starbucks] is gonna to sell me a big wad of chicken nuggets for a buck. But on the plus side, with the guilt that comes along with spending $6 on a cup of coffee, I’m guessing the panhandling’s going to be pretty good.”