World’s Largest Starbucks: A Floor-by-Floor Chicago Guide

Our first morning in Chicago started five floors up a coffee factory on Michigan Avenue.

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery is 35,000 square feet across five floors and it is the largest Starbucks anywhere in the world. It is also, since Starbucks closed the original Seattle Roastery in September 2025, one of only five Roasteries left — Chicago, New York, Milan, Shanghai and Tokyo.

It is not really a coffee shop. It is a working roastery you can walk around, with eight copper tubes, each 56 feet tall, running up through the building carrying beans between floors. You hear them.

Here is what is on every floor, what it costs, and whether it is worth an hour of a short Chicago trip.

Is the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago worth visiting?

The short answer

Yes, if you have an hour and you are already on the Magnificent Mile — it is free to walk into, architecturally impressive, and unlike any other Starbucks. Go for the building and the roasting floor rather than the coffee.

Be aware of two things. Reserve pricing is noticeably higher than a standard Starbucks, so this is not a cheap breakfast. And it gets very busy — mid-morning at weekends is the worst of it.

Not worth it if you are on a tight two-day first visit and have not done the Bean, the river or the Art Institute. It is a lovely hour, not a headline attraction.

The practical details

Address: 646 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 — the former Crate & Barrel flagship on the Magnificent Mile Cost to enter: Free Time to allow: 45 minutes to an hour to see all five floors properly; longer if you eat Best time: Early morning on a weekday. It fills up from mid-morning and weekends are busy throughout.

A floor-by-floor guide

First floor — the coffee bar and the roasting

You come in off Michigan Avenue and the scale hits immediately. The main coffee bar runs along here, with the roasting equipment itself on show, a bean scoop bar where you can look at and smell the different origins, and the merchandise.

This is the floor to stand still on for a minute before you start climbing. The copper tubes are directly overhead and you can watch the beans move.

Second floor — Princi

Princi is the Italian bakery Starbucks partnered with, and it is the reason to eat here rather than just drink. Croissants, cannoli, cheesecake, and beyond the pastries a proper savoury menu — pasta and pizza, made through the day.

This is where we had breakfast on our first morning: buttery croissants, a breakfast sandwich, and a Reserve latte.

Third floor — the rare and experimental coffee

The most interesting floor if you actually care about coffee. Storage barrels, small-batch and rare origins, and the barrel-aged Guatemalan cold brew that is specific to this location.

If you are going to spend money on something you cannot get at a normal Starbucks, spend it here.

Fourth floor — Arriviamo cocktail bar

Coffee and spirits. Handcrafted cocktails, many built around Starbucks Reserve coffee, which is a genuinely unusual thing and makes this an evening destination as much as a morning one.

Adults only in practice, so if you are here with children this is a floor to walk through rather than sit on.

Fifth floor — the rooftop terrace

The pay-off. Open-air, looking out over Michigan Avenue, and in summer it is the best seat in the building. In a Chicago winter it is considerably less appealing — check before you climb.

With kids — what actually works

You can absolutely bring children, and ours were fine, but be realistic about which floors are for them.

• The first floor is the one they will like — the machinery, the tubes, the beans. It is a factory, and factories are interesting.
• Princi on the second floor solves breakfast. Pastries, pizza later in the day, and things that look like things they recognise.
• Non-coffee drinks exist across the menu, but this is a coffee building and the children’s options are thinner than at a standard Starbucks.
• Skip the fourth floor with kids. It is a cocktail bar.
• The rooftop is a good finish in warm weather.

Realistic timing with children: 30 to 45 minutes. The building is the attraction and they will have seen it.

What it costs

What did your family breakfast actually cost? breakfast for four came to about $75 in July 2025

The building, and why it looks like that

It was the Crate & Barrel flagship, built in 1990 and one of the recognisable buildings on the Magnificent Mile.

The detail I like: when Starbucks converted it, they brought in Gordon Segal, Crate & Barrel’s founder, and Solomon Cordwell Buenz, the practice that designed the original building. The Roastery opened on 15 November 2019.

That is why it does not feel like a chain fit-out. The bones of the building were kept and worked with rather than covered over.

How it compares to the Tokyo Roastery

We have been to two of the five: this one and Tokyo.

the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo

What else is nearby

The Roastery sits in the middle of the Magnificent Mile, which makes it a good first stop on a Chicago day.

3 days in Chicago itinerary

Millennium Park and Cloud Gate

360 Chicago observation deck

Skydeck at Willis Tower

Navy Pier

the Shoreline architecture boat tour

Nutella Cafe on Michigan Avenue

where we ate in Chicago

Would we go back?

Yes, and we would do it the same way: early, breakfast at Princi, then work upwards.

The thing I did not expect was how much of the appeal is architectural rather than culinary. The coffee is good and expensive. The building is genuinely remarkable, it is free to walk into, and with Seattle now closed there are only five of these left anywhere.

Go for the tubes.