West Hollywood’s Boystown is always full of rumors about whether this gay bar or that gay clothing store is going to close. But the real stunner was the actual closing today — albeit only for a short time — of what is known as the Big Gay Starbucks.
That coffee shop at the northeast corner of Santa Monica Boulevard had a “closed for repairs” sign on the front door this morning. Standing outside one could see numerous screen writers, novelists, independent consultants and the like drop their jaws at the news.
That’s the Starbucks where, despite the gossip site stories, Justin Bieber did NOT get ejected for refusing to wear a shirt. It’s the Starbucks where countless gay men have actually met the loves of their lives face to face in a world increasingly dominated by mobile hookup apps.
Robert Schwartz, Starbucks district manager, says not to worry. “We just had a simple plumbing problem and we hope to open later today,” he told WEHOville.
“Standing outside one could see numerous screen writers, novelists, independent consultants and the like drop their jaws at the news.” Hilarious!
I call it starbucks “office” for the amount of seats taken up by people on their laptops but nonetheless outside is the real fun, people watching and enjoying the weather…
Glad it is probably not going anywhere anytime soon, its a nice place.
As far as the wages I thought / was under the assumption they paid decently. It looks stressful! But also could be a fun job for meeting people, especially if you are new to LA or West Hollywood.
Most these jobs at Starbucks are intended to be transitional jobs. The employer pays what the job is worth. I’ve never understood what “living wage” means. Wouldn’t “living wage” be different for everybody? Is an employer supposed to ask a new hire how many kids he has, how much his rent is, and what his other expenses are before he decides how much he will pay? If a worker is payed more than the job is worth he will have no incentive to increase his skills so he can move up to better positions. We enable him to not grow… Read more »
hm, the only guy I ever met there stole my credit cards and clothes. maybe good for coffee, but leave the meeting to grindr.
I have no problem with Starbucks and its corporate entity. Quite frankly…they do it better than anyone else on the blvd. They have the largest and nicest indoor seating. Coffee Bean has 3 tables. If a decent Mom & Pop shop would open up and make it a friendly & approachable environment people would go. Remember just 15 years ago THE ABBEY was a great coffee shop and didn’t even serve alcohol. I spent many evenings enjoying some coffee and reading a book there. Until someone creates that vibe again (like many other LA places: Insomnia, Bourgeous Pig, etc)…Starbucks will… Read more »
The questions we should be asking here is, why Starbucks? How about something better like “The WeHo People’s CoOp?” Who ever said we need a corporate logo to succeed? The large multinational corporations consider the marketing of a brand name to be even more important than the actual manufacture of products and, seek to monopolize any and all public space to advertise. The corporations through branding uses their size and influence to suppress options available to the public by means of market dominance and through aggressive invasion of a region as seen with Starbucks. The jobs created are service sector… Read more »
The Coffee Bean has better summer drinks.
they have so many plumbing problems…..