Starbuck's second La Boulange restaurant location will soon offer a build-your-own burgers menu choice, among additional dinner and beverage items.
A Starbucks spokeswoman told The Houston Chronicle that the Los Angeles restaurant's June 12 opening could lead to more locations for the company other than its first two spots in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"We're going to see how this one goes." Linda Mills said.
Besides the normal bakery slate, the company also plans to implement a modern farmhouse atmosphere that serves beer, wine, cocktails and milkshakes until 10 p.m., three more hours than the Bay Area-based cafe is usually open according to The Chronicle. La Boulange shops typically sell breakfast and lunch, with soups, salads, sandwiches and various loaf cake flavors available, including banana, pumpkin and iced lemon.
According to Bloomberg, customers did not like Starbucks' previous attempt to offer more elegant food in smaller portions for more money.
One Starbucks customer from Geneva, N.Y. said the food lacked a certain zest.
"I'm not a fan of the new line," Leslie Fireman said. "Their product has lost some of that freshness and flavor that it used to have."
La Boulange owner Pascal Rigo said the company previously focused on coffee, and did not put effort into serving food.
"Coffee was such a core competency that everything else was an afterthought," Rigo said. "We had a.m., p.m., and afternoon and lunch teams without a real single vision around it."
Rigo currently oversees the company's $1.5 billion food business. Starbucks acquired Rigo's 19-unit La Boulange bakery chain last June for $100 million.
Rigo's chain has also provided frozen baked goods for organic grocery store chains Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Some products are now available in 22 Starbucks locations.
The company's Teavana Tea brand implemented Oprah's new Chai Tea line April 29.
