Carroll_Street,_Portland,_Maine

A third Starbucks will open in downtown Portland, Maine in the next few weeks, according to Bangor Daily News, but area coffee shops seem pretty okay with the whole situation. Maybe it’s because, according to this Slate article, proliferation of Starbucks is actually good for business. Maybe it’s because the scene there is already thriving with quality cafes, the threat of the Mocha Frappuccino is lost in the excitement of a latte art throw down. Here’s what some folks had to say:

โ€œI wouldnโ€™t worry about a Starbucks affecting places like this. Theyโ€™re apples and oranges…Starbucks will always have their customers, I guess. But I donโ€™t see how a chain like that will make that much difference.โ€

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A couple blocks away, at Coffee By Design, a coffee house at 67 India St., shift supervisor Croix Galipault shared that view.

โ€œThereโ€™s more nuance and niche to it than just having another coffee shop nearby,โ€ he said, noting that Coffee By Design and Crema are both successful despite being so close to each other.

โ€œWeโ€™re both here, and weโ€™re both doing well,โ€ he said.

And thus continues the intriguing development of Portland, Maine’s evidently teeming, definitely out-of-the-way, and very intriguing specialty coffee scene. We covered the growth and development of Tandem Coffee Roasters last August, as part of our Build-Outs of Summer series. Now on our list of cafes to visit in Portland, Maine: The Speckled Ax, Crema Coffee Co., Coffee By Design, the aforementioned Tandem Coffee Roasters, Bard Coffee, and maybe the new Starbucks if we need to do a pre-flight mocha. (J/K) (Not really J/K)

 

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