Brutalism

Is This Really America’s ‘Most Depressing’ Starbucks?

Looks kind of open and airy to us, but where are the Norah Jones CDs?
Looks kind of open and airy to us, but where are the Norah Jones CDs? Photo: @todd__johnson/Twitter

Coffee-drinking Los Angeles residents are flummoxed by a new Highland Park Starbucks that was built, it seems, in a style best described as Prison Lemonade Stand. One local filed a review on the indignity, explaining that she feels “discriminated against,” and a trained professional calls the Starbucks “a tragic pastiche of design approaches” that practically calls for a mercy demolition. “If we want plastic tables cemented to concrete slab and outdoor restrooms, we would go to Dunkin’ Donuts,” another reviewer writes, while a lone voice of Yelp dissent gives the place five stars. “They nailed my drink and quickly,” he writes, illuminating a bright spot in all this: At least everyone seems to be in agreement that the coffee is perfectly mediocre. [BI, Eastsider LA]

Is This Really America’s ‘Most Depressing’ Starbucks?