THE FIRST STARBUCKS

Making coffee hot (Seattle)

The first Starbucks opened in 1971 at Pike Street Market in Seattle. Back then the store, named for the first mate of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” specialized in fresh-roasted whole bean coffees. That original outlet is still there; the city’s Web page notes that “because the Market is a historic district with design guidelines, the store retains its original look.”

The Starbucks experience has evolved, though, most notably after company chairman, president and chief executive officer Howard Schultz traveled to Milan, Italy, in 1983, and brought a version of the coffeehouse tradition he found there back to the United States. Now, of course, you don’t have to go to Seattle (or even the United States) for that experience -- Starbucks has more than 15,000 stores in 50 countries.