Schaumburg Starbucks hopes to add beer, wine

Coffee afficionados may soon find the after-work lines growing longer at some of their favorite Starbucks locations, where beer and wine, as well as an expanded food selection, will be added to the menu.

The Starbucks at Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg will be among the first five stores in the Chicago area to try selling alcohol this spring. The others are in Chicago and Burr Ridge, Schaumburg Assistant Village Attorney Rita Elsner said.

The idea has been kept top-secret for some time, Elsner said. That may explain why the manager at the Streets of Woodfield location said Thursday he still had no information about the plan.

But Starbucks attorney Harlan Powell this week formally requested a Class F liquor license in Schaumburg, which would allow the store to serve beer and wine from late afternoon until midnight.

In Schaumburg, only restaurants can be granted a Class F liquor license. In its current configuration, the Streets of Woodfield Starbucks does not qualify as a restaurant.

But that will soon change as the store expands its kitchen facilities to serve new hot food items that will be added, Elsner said.

It takes four to eight weeks for the village to process a liquor license request, including the necessary criminal background check and an on-site inspection, so the Starbucks could be finished with its kitchen improvements by that time, Elsner said.