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Starbucks’ New Lunch Menu Launching in Seattle, No More Sad Paninis

Seattle's coffee empire hits refresh on its lunch offerings.

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SBX20170206_82196.tif

I eat more meals at Starbucks than I’d care to admit—mostly those irresistible bacon-and-gruyere sous vide egg bites gobbled in traffic (glamorous, I know). Doesn’t it seem that every time you get attached to a menu item there that it disappears? Hopefully those sad wheat sandwiches or paninis weren’t your thing because today Starbucks is announcing a new lunch menu concept launching in 200 local stores: Mercato will feature “vibrant, hearty grab-and-go salads, sandwiches and sides” made fresh every day. 

The new menu will all be priced under $10 before tax. A few examples: za’atar chicken and lemon tahini salad with freekah (a whole grain superfood) and cucumber tzatziki, green goddess avocado salad with rice and orzo, roasted chicken sandwich with fig spread and a Cubano sandwich with both pulled pork and smoked loin. Those stores selling the Mercato line will keep their breakfast pastries—so thankfully my egg bites aren’t going anywhere anytime soon—but won’t have the existing salad-and-sandwich lunch options.

Perhaps the most exciting part, from a grand perspective anyway, is that Starbucks will be donating leftover food at the end of the night to Food Lifeline, via the Starbucks FoodShare program.

Starbucks launched Mercato in Chicago in April—Seattle will be the second market. The company has grown its food business by 1.5 times since 2013, with plans to double it by 2021. Listening to what customers want—clearly more grab-and-go options, and healthy, tasty ones at that—seems like a good way to do it. 

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

At Cut Club, the longtime Seattle restaurateur is going old-school, with steaks made for sharing, no service charges, and a happy hour where $12 still buys dinner. 

Cut Club, the new steakhouse inside downtown’s Hotel Max, feels like a restaurant from the not-too-distant past. The menu leans comfortable rather than ambitious or world-spanning. It serves a typical lineup of steak cuts, some traditional sides like oysters, prawn cocktail, and wedge salad, and some cocktails that are between $15 and $20. There’s a…

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Alissa Leinonen’s new venture brings her seasonal, Northwest approach to weddings, milestone celebrations, and elevated events.

After 30 years, Alissa Leinonen—founder of renowned catering and box-lunch company, Gourmondo—has launched a new venture. Called Olivina, the new luxury catering and events company focuses on highly personalized, elevated experiences ranging from weddings or other milestone celebrations to corporate gatherings. What started with $4,000 from a refinanced car (and a tiny café in Pike…

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

Autumn is back. Celebrate with fresh-hop beer, apple harvests, returning salmon, cranberries, and more. 

Explore 7 fun Washington fall festivals worth the drive, from Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival and Issaquah Salmon Days to CrabFest and Fresh Hop Ale.

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Hope you’re hungry for a history lesson. Oliver’s, the cocktail lounge inside downtown’s Mayflower Park Hotel, was a Bartell Drugs store during Prohibition before becoming the city’s first hotel bar in the late 1940s—the Carousel Room, named for the carousel horses hung from the ceiling. When Washington repealed the rule forbidding the service of hard…