Starbucks — Restaurant in Wilmington

Something new I've learned: not all Starbucks are created equal. My go-to beverage is a venti filthy** chai latte (filthy = 3 shots of expresso). Recently, Starbucks came up with an option to have the chai "lightly sweetened" - a fantastic way to save calories! However, I just discovered that only free-standing Starbucks locations offer the lightly sweetened chai. If you order this at a Starbucks within, for example, Giant supermarket, there's a chance you will, as I did, receive a look of bewilderment. Whatever ingredients make the chai only "lightly sweet," and save you over 100 calories, they are hoarded by free-standing Starbucks. That being said, if you find yourself at Starbucks within a Target or a Giant, you can still have a reduced calorie chai latte by asking to have it prepared "unsweetened." Interestingly enough, should you ask for an "unsweetened chai latte" at a free-standing Starbucks, once again you will receive a look of bewilderment. Evidently the non-free-standing Starbucks are hoarding the SOP for an unsweetened chai latte.

** use the terminology "filthy" and "dirty" ( two shots of espresso) at your own risk. While I have been told at multiple Starbucks locations that these are universally understood adjectives across the Starbucks company, from time to time I have found Baristas that interpret them...

I've been going to this Starbucks for a year and a half now, even though it's a little further from my house than other locations. It does sometimes get a little busy, but other than sometimes longer wait times, I've never had anything negative to say about the service here, and the wait times are often out of staff's control and down to high volume of online and in person orders.

In regards to outages of certain items, I've talked to the baristas and been told that they have ordered them, but Starbucks is often slow on restocking their stores or even completely out of items such as cold brew for long periods of time. The baristas are always apologetic and usually offer me an alternative if I'm not able to get my usual.

The staff are always super sweet. I want to give a shoutout to all of them, but especially Brian, Megan, and Julia, as they're the ones I usually interact with. Not only are they super friendly, but they also remember things that I've previously shared about my life and will ask for updates. If a mistake is made, which happens to everyone, I've never had an issue mentioning it and getting it fixed. It's such a shame to see these negative reviews for a store that has been nothing but a positive place for me to come and get a...

Ever have one of those mornings? The kind when you wake up but really you realize 2 hours later that you have been functioning in zombie mode and are not even truly awake yet? I had one of those this morning and with all of the coffee shop Solutions in the area I chose to go with Old Faithful and stop by Starbucks. I'm so glad I did. Alexis greeted me at the counter with a big friendly smile was totally patient while I struggled to place my order and figure out what all I needed to get me through my day. My breakfast my san Pellegrino and the coffee that I must have reordered three or four times because in that moment I couldn't even articulate what I wanted. Oh did I mention she had to ring me up twice because I forgot to put coffee on my original order? She patiently kindly told me it was okay and that my morning would get better and not to worry about having to ring me up twice. If you're having a morning like mine or even if you just need to stop for a friendly face and a good cup of coffee this awesome Starbucks staff and the friendly greeting from Alexis up front will totally...