The New Starbucks Is Open! The New Starbucks Is Open!

Yep, that Starbucks at the bottom of the escalator at the 9th and Market entrance to the Gallery (whose coming we heralded with such excitement at the end of last month) has now jettisoned its white plywood cocoon and emerged as a beautiful butterfly - or a high-priced coffee and snack shop, depending on how you look at it. In fact, it apparently opened this weekend, but we were down the shore and missed the whole thing. They're still working out some kinks, and don't have everything every Starbucks is expected to have just yet, but they should be running on all cylinders soon. The other folks in line seemed just as excited as we were - if not more so - to see the place finally ready for business. And to keep up our excitement and entice us into coming back (or, you know, maybe out of the goodness of his heart), the manager there handed out $5 Starbucks gift cards to everybody in line. Yay!

Photo of the remains of the author's breakfast by the author