Starbucks Debuting Real (Open Kind Of Late) Restaurant In Los Angeles Next Month

(Kim)

(Kim)

If you’re a fan of Starbucks’ limited food options, then you might be excited to hear the coffee-chain is opening an actual restaurant, complete with omelets and a croissant burger, next month in Los Angeles.

La Boulange, named for the bakery chain that Starbucks acquired in 2012, will start the day with items such as salads and soups before moving on to burgers, cocktails and beer later in the day, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

Unlike traditional La Boulange Bakery locations, which close at 7 p.m., the new restaurant will serve dinner until 10 p.m.

The restaurant isn’t Starbucks’ first attempt to attract patrons to shops in the evening hours.

Over the past several years, the company has experimented with offering booze and nibbles. Several stores were rebranded in 2009 and 2010 to test out the new program. While the company made a big ado about expanding the program in 2012, only about 40 of the company’s 11,000 U.S. coffee shops provide the offerings.

Starbucks’ COO Troy Alstead told Bloomberg in March that the company’s program works and that each time it has expanded to a new location, “there is a meaningful increase in sales during that time of the day.”

La Boulange is just the latest fast-casual off-shoot of traditional fast-food stops.

In April, Taco Bell announced it was testing the waters with the more upscale U.S. Taco restaurant. The eatery won’t just be serving American-style tacos, but tacos actually inspired by regional American foods.

That same month Yum! Brands, the parent company to Kentucky Fried Chicken, quietly opened its own “exploratory” new concept restaurant Super Chix. The company maintains the restaurant is a one-off and won’t likely be replicated outside of its Arlington, Texas location anytime soon.

With a Croissant Burger, Starbucks and La Boulange Test the Dinner Crowd [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.