In European countries the better cafes are often located adjacent to a popular bakery. The owners of both businesses soon realize they can both increase sales if a daily range of all the bakery's pastry goods are made available in the cafe. Cafes often succeed based on who their bakery supplier is. Then sometimes they join forces under the same roof - a 'boulangerie-cafe'.

In the US the popular chain, 'Au Bon Pain', employed precisely this business model. In-house daily baking provides pastry and the familiar range of coffees to customers. A chain of such shops is popular because quality and an established menu is maintained from cafe to cafe.

Au Bon Pain focused on the 'boulangerie' half of this equation. Starbucks focused on the 'cafe' half. Offering a full range of the different forms of coffee preparation, with cram or milk put under steam pressure to produce the frothy variations, was a specific beverage service offered in Europe, and indeed it was assumed its appeal would not be understood outside Europe.

What Starbucks has done is market an indigenous European beverage practice, offer it under conditions of consistent quality and a menu of coffees, in a chain of 'cafes'. However, the decor of Starbucks cafes bears little resemblance to continental European cafes. The former are more reminiscent of an upper-middle class English pub, with a mix of upholstered chairs with coffee tables, tables and chairs, and nostalgic prints on the walls.

Starbucks is thus a successful blending of three quite distinct European food and beverage service traditions.

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