If Starbucks frappuccinos aren’t fancy enough for you, you’re in luck: Starbucks is going to start carrying foods from Princi, a chain of Italian boutique bakeries where employees wear uniforms designed by Armani. On Wednesday, the coffee giant announced that it was investing in Princi, including helping the line expand worldwide.
There are currently five Princi locations in Milan and London. Each store is designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin and strives for a minimalist aesthetic. Princi restaurants are open 24 hours each day, serving everything from breakfast to dinner. They’re best known for their hand-made, wood-fired bread.
In 2017, Starbucks plans to debut another Princi location in Seattle, the city where it opened its first cafe in 1971. Starbucks is also launching new Roastery locations in New York and Shanghai, where it will exclusively sell food from Princi. Princi foods will also be sold in their upcoming line of Reserve-only stores, which sell Reserve coffees and alcohol (depending on the location).
“We have never baked in our stores in 45 years. But all of that will change with the creation of this unique partnership,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and CEO, in a statement. He continued:
Rocco and his team at Princi possess a passion for handcrafted food and artisanal baked goods that mirrors how I feel about our coffee. The attention to detail, the care invested in selecting the ingredients and the artistry of preparation is second only to the service Rocco offers customers inside his Princi stores. I can think of no better pairing for our most premium coffee experience and am excited by the possibilities we envision in Princi food elevating every day part—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—in Starbucks Roasteries and Reserve Stores.
San Francisco bakery chain La Boulange, in which Starbucks invested $100 million in 2012, is still the main supplier of food in most Starbucks stores. Though Starbuck’s investment in La Boulange was initially successful, Starbucks closed all of its La Boulange cafes in 2015 because “they were not sustainable for its long-term growth,” reports Reuters.
The announcement did not specify the amount of money Starbucks invested in Princi, nor how many Princi stores it hopes to open in the future. Until then, we’ll be thinking about their spinach and feta breakfast wraps.