Since the beginning of the fall semester, Winthrop’s Starbucks has been serving students at a temporary kiosk on the ground floor of DiGiorgio Campus Center. While renovations were being conducted at its original location, Starbucks employees were working hard to satisfy customers. Now, Winthrop Dining announced Monday that Starbucks has reopened and with several new features.
Cristian Carrion, regional manager for Starbucks and Chick–fil–A, said that customers can look forward to having a full menu again.
“We will have a full menu because definitely at the kiosk, we were very limited to what we could do,” Carrion said. “We’re bringing back frappuccinos, and we’re going to have a lot more space for espresso machines. Instead of just having one person work on the espresso machine, we’re going to have two separate people work on those.”
New kinds of drinks can also be expected, along with new machines to benefit students’ dining experience at Starbucks.
“Something new that’s coming in is the nitro cold brew, which I know everyone’s really excited about,” Carrion said. “I finally got to try it out today, and it’s really exciting and a different flavor from the regular cold brew.”
Along with another espresso machine, there’s a larger quantity of machines to make drinks and food faster.
“We’ve always only had one oven, and now we have two,” Carrion said. “We can now cook sandwiches and pastries a lot faster instead of waiting on one oven per customer.”
Along with new equipment at Starbucks, students can expect new seating arrangements as well.
“There will be plenty of more space for the baristas,” Carrion said. “We’re going to have a lot more seating areas and tables for students to just hang out at.”
Helen Hoban, general manager of dining services at Winthrop, has guaranteed more choices for students to choose from at Starbucks.
“The renovation of Starbucks has upgraded the store to the new Starbucks standards, has made the design of the work area more efficient, and will allow us to offer new concepts including cold brew and Nitro,” Hoban said. “There will be more machines and equipment to offer more choices.”
These renovations have been a work in progress for quite some time now, resulting in the use of a temporary pop-up kiosk downstairs in the DiGiorgio Campus Center.
“Renovations were actually supposed to start at the beginning of summer, but due to certain things, they really started working on renovations in mid-July,” Carrion said. “There’s been a lot of shipping issues lately with materials. That’s why renovations have been pushed back until now.”
Aba Hutchison, marketing specialist for Winthrop Dining Services, knows that there have been questions regarding the expenses of the renovations and how that affects students.
“One thing I’ll say is that I know that there were questions because we had announced the renovations on social media,” Hutchison said. “I know some students were wondering if the new renovation budgets came from students’ tuition. And no, I can say that none of the renovation budget came from students’ tuition.”
Hutchison also noted that the inconvenience of moving the Starbucks was not solely a Winthrop University decision. The staff is aware of how the inconvenience has affected students.
“Everyone on campus has been very patient as we navigated through the use of a kiosk as opposed to a full store,” Hoban said. “It has been a challenge as the kiosk is a much smaller footprint and did not allow for many of the Starbucks signature beverages, which required blenders and such.
“The staff is very excited to be working in a new environment and can’t wait to show everyone the new options. I think students, faculty and staff will be enthusiastic about the new venue.”
Starbucks officially reopened on Nov. 15, returning with some exciting specials.
“I know that students have been peeking through and looking at the Christmas decorations,” Hutchison said. “So we will be open in time for students to enjoy the Christmas specials at Starbucks.
“We will actually be having a grand reopening, where we plan on having golden tickets, where students can get a free grande or a specialty cup. Just be on the lookout, we want to make this fun for students.”
