Starbucks

If you're a regular Starbucks customer in Corona del Mar, you might notice a few missing seats at the counter. After a resident expressed concern, city officials investigated and asked that seats be removed at Starbucks at 2801 E. Coast Hwy. to make sure the coffee shop is in compliance with its permit. "The conditional use permit limited inside seating to a maximum of 21 seats," said Mary Locey, a city spokeswoman. "It was determined that additional seating was added, and they have been asked to bring the seating into compliance by our Code Enforcement Division.

Starbucks locations are scheduled to shut down nationwide between 5:30 and 9 p.m. tonight as servers undergo training in how to make espressos. The Seattle-based coffee giant plans to train more than 100,000 servers in “the art of espresso” — to quote the company’s news release — and lock all doors during that time. That may alter a number of people’s day in Newport-Mesa, where the Starbucks website lists 22 locations. Kimberly Clark, a student at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, stopped at the Starbucks at Harbor Boulevard and Baker Street this afternoon to enjoy a cup before the early closing.

JUNE CASAGRANDE Hello and welcome to another installment of the Business of Language, or as I'm thinking of calling it, Postcards From Starbucks. I'm not a big fan of Starbucks. In fact, I'm predicting the company's eventual demise as more and more people slowly come to terms with the reality that half the drinks they're calling "coffee" are just variations on the milkshake. Still, it's hard to find places where I can read my nerdy grammar books and also catch peeks over strangers' shoulders of countless blockbuster screenplays in the making.

Eastside Costa Mesa is about to get another Starbucks, the third in about a 2-mile stretch off 17 t h Street, but this one is different. This one has a drive-through. Housed with what used to be a credit union, the location at 450 E. 17 t h St. was not without controversy. "More than 60 residents of Cabrillo Street have written letters to the City Council opposing the (drive-through) aspect of the proposed Starbucks," Councilwoman Wendy Leece wrote in a request to review the project.

Eva Shaffer-Brown, an Orange Coast College Student Activities office worker, didn't make the usual trip to her neighborhood Starbucks Monday morning. Not because she was prepared to tackle the day without her Grande, non-fat, no-whip, extra-hot peppermint mocha, but because she could get it right on campus. The on-campus Starbucks, which seats about 90 people inside and out, opened its doors Monday as part of the new Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, which is set to open Feb. 2. "I think it will provide a great service to the students, staff and faculty," said Shaffer-Brown, who was first in line at the new store.

Newport-Mesa’s coffee drinkers got a free treat this morning, as Starbucks provided free 8-ounce samples of its new brew for half an hour beginning at 9 a.m. The Seattle-based chain created its new brew, Pike Place Roast, after soliciting input from nearly 1,000 customers. The brew features a smoother flavor than the typical Starbucks blend, flavored with dashes of cocoa and toasted nuts, and will remain on the menu indefinitely. At Starbucks stores around Newport-Mesa, servers offered shots of Pike Place Roast by the cash register and carried trays around the tables.

Starbucks locations across America shut down at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to give servers a crash course in how to make a faster, better espresso. When the sun rose Wednesday, the coffee giant had a pair of new menu items to show for it — the Honey Latte Espresso and the Caramel Espresso Frappuccino — as well as servers who were supposedly quicker on the draw. Adam Gott, a shift manager at the Starbucks at Harbor Boulevard and Baker Street, said his staff had received pointers the night before on steaming milk, putting in the right amount of coffee and doing it all as quickly as possible.

Greer Wylder Remember when a day without orange juice was like a day without sunshine? Not anymore. Now a day isn't complete without a piping-hot cafe latte with freshly steamed milk -- even if it costs $3.50. The heyday of specialty coffee chains is here. On almost every corner or strip mall there's a Starbucks, Diedrich's Coffee, Coffee Bean or Peet's Coffee. Newport Beach got a jump on the espresso drink trend in 1979, when C'est Si Bon reportedly became the first local shop to serve cafe lattes.

Balboa Island will host its 19th annual community garage sale from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. More than 150 homeowners and businesses are expected to participate in this year’s sale, held annually in the alley ways on Balboa Island. Shoppers can grab a map of sales and free Starbucks coffee in the alley at 118 Agate Ave. beginning 7:30 a.m. today. Organizers of the event are instructing sale goers to be prepared to come early or park off the island on Bayside Drive, as parking will be scarce.

As of Thursday, I am no longer just a name to three residents of our coverage area. I am also the man with the stuffed Emily Dickinson. Three years ago, I stayed at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Ore., in which every room is themed after a famous writer and the gift shop offers a slew of literary memorabilia. As a souvenir from my trip, I brought back a stuffed doll of the reclusive poet, which now resides on my bookshelf at home. I explain it away to visitors by saying I bought it for my wife, but let's be honest - no literary young man can truly be inspired without a plush Emily Dickinson by his desk.

According to Gisberto Bertucci, there are two ways to get anywhere in the universe: your imagination or through a black hole. "Why would God create such a large landscape if we can't see it?" he mused Friday morning on a bus trundling down Coast Highway toward Laguna Beach. "In your mind, there are no limits. Or in a black hole, there's no time and no space. If you got through, you could be anywhere. " Bertucci, who lives in a camper parked in a friend's Costa Mesa yard, catches Orange County Transit Authority's Line 1 to Main Beach every morning about 9 at a stop on East Coast Highway.

Throughout Costa Mesa there have been signs of new economic investment along our major corridors. Harbor Boulevard is dotted with construction crews busy building new projects, 17th Street is home to a few new restaurants, and the Triangle is under scaffolding for its impending reinvention. But if you take a closer look, you'll notice that the kind of development we're attracting is not the type you'd eagerly anticipate. I'm not referring to a new sit-down restaurant or the re-use of a large, abandoned car dealership or a much-needed senior housing development.

Eastside Costa Mesa is about to get another Starbucks, the third in about a 2-mile stretch off 17 t h Street, but this one is different. This one has a drive-through. Housed with what used to be a credit union, the location at 450 E. 17 t h St. was not without controversy. "More than 60 residents of Cabrillo Street have written letters to the City Council opposing the (drive-through) aspect of the proposed Starbucks," Councilwoman Wendy Leece wrote in a request to review the project.

Last month the Heritage Museum of Orange County inaugurated its speakers' series with a presentation by Martin Dietrich, the founder of Dietrich's Coffee. The theme of the series is how various businesses here in Orange County were created, and how they became successful, and that is exactly the information that Dietrich gave us. Dietrich was raised in Antigua, Guatemala, where he worked at his family's small coffee plantation. But when he became older, he bought a 1962 Volkswagen bus and drove it north to "make his fortune.

If you're a regular Starbucks customer in Corona del Mar, you might notice a few missing seats at the counter. After a resident expressed concern, city officials investigated and asked that seats be removed at Starbucks at 2801 E. Coast Hwy. to make sure the coffee shop is in compliance with its permit. "The conditional use permit limited inside seating to a maximum of 21 seats," said Mary Locey, a city spokeswoman. "It was determined that additional seating was added, and they have been asked to bring the seating into compliance by our Code Enforcement Division.

Three men arrested in Costa Mesa for allegedly stealing tip money from a 17th Street Starbucks and fleeing in a stolen car were identified Friday. Israel Trent, 18, of Corona, was arrested for burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime and grand theft auto. Prince-Erahkeem Boyd, 19, of Corona, and a 16-year-old boy were also charged with burglary and conspiracy to commit a crime, Costa Mesa police said. After allegedly stealing money from a Starbucks tip jar about 12:20 p.m. Thursday, authorities realized the suspects were driving a stolen vehicle, spurring police to follow it. The occupants jumped out of the vehicle during the pursuit and fled in different directions.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' apostle of transparency, "exposed" a cabal of international Jewish conspiracists, whom he charged with making common cause to smear him and attack his website. He was piqued over personal e-mails being published by some newspapers. Oh, the irony that something he intended to be private was made public! When told that the object of his wrath, the editor of Britain's Guardian newspaper, was not Jewish, Assange countered that he was "sort of Jewish" because he had a Jewish brother-in-law.

Balboa Island will host its 19th annual community garage sale from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. More than 150 homeowners and businesses are expected to participate in this year’s sale, held annually in the alley ways on Balboa Island. Shoppers can grab a map of sales and free Starbucks coffee in the alley at 118 Agate Ave. beginning 7:30 a.m. today. Organizers of the event are instructing sale goers to be prepared to come early or park off the island on Bayside Drive, as parking will be scarce.

Holiday cheer accompanied the annual changeover in leadership at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, as members presented outgoing board President Martha Fluor with gifts: a portable desk, an alarm clock (Fluor isn’t reputed to be a morning person) and gift cards to Starbucks and South Coast Plaza. Though board members all kept their spots this year, their positions shifted. Having had her turn, Fluor went back to being a regular board member, though she has a new job ahead as vice president of the California School Boards Assn.