Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultz recently credited Italy with inspiring two of the most pivotal moments in his professional life.
The first was in 1983. Schultz, at the time director of retail operations and marketing at the original Starbucks roastery, traveled to Milan and saw first-hand the significance of Italy’s espresso culture. He returned to the Northwest convinced he could create a similar environment in Seattle. He later left the roastery and founded Il Giornale, which went on to acquire Starbucks in 1987. The rest, of course, is history.
The second epiphany happened nearly 30 years later. In 2010, Schultz, again in Milan, visited the boutique bakery of Rocco Princi and was blown away by the quality and taste of Princi’s baked goods. “I had never experienced such quality baking,” Schultz said. “Rocco Princi is an artisan who, at an early age, discovered a love of bread making and through determination, as well as an obsession for finding the perfect ingredients, has created an Italian food experience that I think is unparalleled.”
It took Schultz six years to convince Princi to come to America. That dream was realized last November when Starbucks installed a Princi bakery inside Starbucks’ first Reserve Roastery on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
Now, the Milanese master baker has gone one step further to bring “lo spirito di Milano” to Seattle. On July 31, the first stand-alone Princi café in the US opened on Westlake Avenue, just north of downtown Seattle. Starbucks has a licensing and investment deal with Princi that will lead to two additional stand-alone bakeries in Chicago and New York later this year, and Schulz envisions more than 1,000 stand-alone Princi cafés opening in the years ahead. The locations will not carry Starbucks branding but will serve the company’s Reserve coffees.
Unfortunately, for the time being, Seattle’s Princi café is surrounded by several blocks of massive development and gritty construction, about as uninviting a location as one can find in Seattle. Pedestrians have to dodge bulldozers, skirt cement trucks, and walk around construction flaggers just to cross the street.
But once inside Princi, the hubbub of Seattle dies away. The space is chic, stylish and brightly lit, with a large black-and-white photo of founder Rocco Princi prominently displayed at the front of the store. Delicious pastries, tempting tarts and other baked items are beautifully arranged in squeaky-clean display cases.
Behind the pastries, on shelves running the length of the room, are crispy round loaves of bread with PRINCI stenciled in flour on the top of each one. They are joined by lightly floured ciabatta, squares of focaccia and breadsticks. Fresh basil plants run down the center of the long communal tables, and soft jazz is playing in the background.
“When you first walk into a Princi bakery, you’re hit by the energy, the theater, the smell,” said Christian Davies, Starbucks vice president in charge of the company’s creative global design. “Your first impression is the abundance and seduction of food. That’s what we’re trying to create with a distinctly Italian look and feel to bring that passion to life.”
Princi’s interest in baking goes back to his teenage years, when he apprenticed to a baker. At the age of 21, he opened his first bakery in Villa San Giovanni. With his slogan of “hot bread all day,” his bread was a huge hit and he soon outgrew the space. In 1986, he moved to northern Italy where he eventually opened six bakeries in Milan, followed by one in London’s Soho neighborhood.
At Princi, customers have a choice of select menu items along with the baked goods which are available all day long. The breakfast menu includes steel-cut oats with Italian jam, baked eggs in a spicy tomato sauce, or breakfast sandwiches with prosciutto and fontina. At lunchtime, there’s a changing assortment of soups, sandwiches and pizza. The food uses ingredients supplied by small-scale Italian cheesemakers, charcutiers and other producers; fresh ingredients are said to come from local markets. Most breakfast and lunch items are priced in the $6-$10 range.
But the real fun is after hours when Seattle residents can get a taste, literally, of a traditional Italian aperitivo. At Princi’s Bar Mixato, baristas will shake, stir or blend up a Rocco Princi-curated cocktail ($14.50 each). Beer, wine and spirits are also on hand, and happy hour drinks are accompanied by complimentary small plates filled with Italian delicacies, such as aged Parmigiano Reggiano or Cerignola green olives.
Customers can enjoy their drinks perched on one of the tri-legged wooden stools at the bar or take them outdoors to the spacious patio. Although not at its peak right now—the patio backs up to yet another construction pit—a small city park is scheduled to be installed in the space later this year. For now, a hedge of fragrant rosemary plants are in pots surrounding the outdoor seating space.
In a press release from Starbucks, Schultz praised the Milanese baker. “The attention to detail, the care invested in selecting the right ingredients and the artistry of preparation is second only to the service Rocco offers customers into his Princi stores.”
Rocco Princi seems pleased to be part of the Seattle scene, bringing his passion for handcrafted food and artisanal baked goods to the Pacific Northwest. “I am excited and humbled that the people of Seattle will now be able to experience our food,” Princi said.
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