Click on the photo of the girl (who's name is "Bobbie" -- just like the character "Bobbi" in the book).
You can just picture the first proprietor, history teacher Zev Siegl (one of the three founders of Starbucks), standing behind the counter...
From the novel, Pike Place:
We couldn’t afford to buy lunch for all of us at the market, but my mom had packed apples for us to eat on the way home. As we were making our way back to our parking space, we came upon a store that smelled of fresh coffee.
“Oh, Daddy – let’s go into this store,” my mom said. “It smells so good.” And it did smell good. We all filed into the store and Scottie and I were quick to notice that they were giving out small cups of coffee to sample. We quickly lined up to get our free cup.
“Is it okay with your parents for you kids to sample coffee?” asked the guy standing behind the counter. He was wearing a white apron with the word ‘Zev’ stitched on it. We weren’t sure if he was mad at us or if that’s the way he always sounded.
“I think it’s okay. They let us have it at home,” I said, looking back at my parents. My mother was on the other side of the shop, looking at some fancy coffee machines that were lined up on the shelves. My dad was intrigued by a bunch of boat stuff that was on another wall.
“Hey, folks. Is it okay with you if I give your kids a sample of one of our richest, dark-roasted coffees?” Zev called out to our parents. Both my mom and dad looked a bit embarrassed for a moment, but as they walked over to talk to the coffee guy, the smile on his face seemed to put them at ease.
“Is it okay with you?” my mother asked him tentatively.
“Sure, it’s fine with me. Gotta start ‘em off on the good stuff, right?” Zev laughed to himself. “Here. Why don’t the two of you try some of this brew? We just roasted these beans about an hour ago.”
My parents were only too thrilled to sample the rich-smelling coffee, and they accepted the small cups and blew on them for a minute before they each took a sip. They drank their coffee black; we, on the other hand put three cubes of sugar each into our little paper cups, along with a hefty portion of cream. As we walked away from the counter, I saw Scottie grab two more cubes and put them in his pocket to suck on later. I wished that he had grabbed some for me.
“Wow,” my dad said, “this is good coffee!” My mom nodded her head in agreement. Scottie and I took a sip. It was different – strong, but with a slightly bitter aftertaste. I liked it, but not as much as I liked my mom’s coffee.
“Bobbi, come here,” Scottie whispered. “Look at this,” he giggled. Scottie was looking at a painting of a mermaid on the window in the front of the shop. The mermaid was buck naked and her mermaid tail was split in two. She was holding both ends of the tail with out-stretched arms. Scottie was staring right at her bare breasts. I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the window and told him to close his eyes.
"That's disgusting," I said, but he just grinned at me. I frowned back. "Scott Johnson," I said, "sometimes I worry about you."
M.
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