The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 27

27 Takeover of chain has coffee mavens uneasy: Some may go on a bean stalk THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1994 -k ,4 1 I 11 i i i PHOTO MEOA Customers line up for their daily fix of gourmet coffee at the Coffee Connection in Cambridge, won't But how many time have you heard that from big com? panies? I'm skeptical." Howell: fervent missionary of coffee, art history major at Yale, conservative dresser, went into the coffee business after selling Huichol Indian art from Mexico. Schultz: bouncy salesman of coffee, marketing major at Northern Michigan University, stylish dresser, entered the coffee business from the housewares trade after a stint at Xerox. And there mil be changes at Cof fee Connection. Schultz talked this week about possibly adding Starbucks coffee to the Coffee Connection line. He also talked about faster service and larger stores.

Although he said "I realize there's a connection between coffee and lifestyle," such shifts in atmosphere are what worry Greg Smutny is a writer and artist who often nurses a 16-ounce coffee through an hour or two while sitting at his regular table at the Coffee Connection in Harvard Square. "This is like an office away from the office," Smutny explained this week. "I'm afraid that not only the coffee will change now, but other things. Like the staff. They've always seemed to have an offbeat crowd working here.

Very tolerant. The rhetoric you hear is "Things Coffee Connection's two Newbury Street stores. "The coffee is really good here," he said. "What's going to happen to it? I ordered some of Starbucks' coffee by mail once, and it wasn't nearly as good as Coffee Connection." At a nearby table, Wanda Curtain, another regular, sipped Colombian Narino and smiled. "You would think that Starbucks made ball bearings the way some people around here are talking about the sale," she mused.

"I mean, they do make coffee." Indeed, Starbucks named for the coffee-swilling first mate in "Moby Dick" is the largest coffee retailer in North America. It roasted 15 million pounds of beans last year and grossed $163.5 million, while Coffee Connection was roasting 1.3 million pounds and taking in $15 million. But although it still plans to open about half a dozen outlets under its own name in and around Boston this year, Starbucks is basically a Western and Midwestern phenomenon. Yet some of the skepticism that's percolating within Coffee Connection's little cafe society has its origins in a local source: Coffee Connection itself. Until the unexpected sale was announced two weeks ago, Starbucks was on course to become a competitor of the Boston chain rather than what Schultz now calls a "co-author." And, like more than a few people, Howell himself was known to refer to Starbucks as "Charbucks," an unkind cut referring to its relatively darker roast.

Suddenly the tune has changed. "We've been representing Coffee Connection for three years, painting Starbucks as the bad guys," said He-lene Solomon of BishoffSolomon Communications, a local public relations firm that has the Coffee Connection account. "Now we're having a love-in." Schultz and Howell are now eager to point out how much Starbucks and Coffee Connection have in common. Both companies sell more than 30 varieties of whole bean arabica coffee culled from such outposts as Costa Rica and Kenya, for Both roast their own beans and say they won't sell them if they've been in bins longer than seven days. Both have similarly cute slogans: Starbucks touts its "search for the perfect bean," Coffee Connection its "search for the ultimate cup." But there are differences.

Starbucks favors that darker, richer, chestnut brown roast. At Coffee the two principal roasts are lighter in color and not as strong as Starbucks, reflecting the style favored in the Northeast. Starbucks has made its mark via espresso-based drinks such as latte and cappuccino, which blend the coffee with steamed and foamed milk. Howell, a black coffeee fanatic, has in the past disparagingly referred to such concoctions as "milk drinks," although this this week he said that he probably sells as high a percentage of 'such concoctions as does Starbucks. Then there are the differences between Howell and Schultz.

COFFEE Continued from Page 1 Sherry Moss, choosing the word carefully earlier this week as she shopped at Coffee Connection's Newton Centre store with her 10-year-old son, Ben. "Coffee is very important to me," explained loss, a' psychotherapist. "It's a wonderful addiction. I often do it instead of eating. It's very relaxing, but it's very stimulating.

Both those things. Psychologically, it makes a difference in my life. "And now there seems to be more potential for losing quality. And for losing choice." The burgeoning world of gourmet coffees is a place where opinions are every bit as strong as a French roast. Preferences are distinct and loyalty matters.

"People want to make sure that what they're used to is going to remain," explained Corby Kummer, an editor at The Atlantic Monthly who is writing a book about coffee. "They're very concerned about someone coming in and imposing a different style than the one they're used to." Poor George Howell. All the Coffee Connection's 49-year-old president and founder wanted to do by selling, he says, was shed his operational duties and get back to scouting beans in the likes of Kenya and Costa Rica. Now he can't walk into one of his stores without some cof-feehead asking him if the sale means he's planning to drop the chain's signature "full flavor roast." Howell, who plans to stay with the firm for the foreseeable future as its coffee buyer and honcho, can't seem to say no enough these days. "Most of our customers are concerned," admitted Lisa Gillin, manager of the Coffee.

Connection in Harvard Square, the first place Howell opened in 1975. "No one comes in and says, 'Boy, this is great I've had people say, 'If you're going to have Starbucks beans, I'm going to the Poor Howard Schultz. The 40-year-old chairman, president and chief executive officer of the rapidly growing Starbucks empire hasn't even inked the deal and already he's found himself explaining, most notably to two large groups of Coffee Connection employees on Tuesday, that there will be 'Very few changes" in the chain's operation. "We're going to preserve the integrity of Coffee Connection," Schultz emphasized during an interview held between those gatherings, which took place at Coffee Connection's roasting facility and headquarters in South Boston. "The name will stay the same.

And the coffee will stay the' same, roasted in Boston and guided by George Howell. We don't want to cfeateanxiety and tension." Alas, the impending sale has already done that. "Whenever a smaller company gets swallowed up by a larger company, you worry about quality control," fretted Richard Lo-verd one morning earlier this week. Loverd, an assistant professor of political science at Northeastern, was making his regular stop at one of Smutny knows trouble in coffee land when he sees it, all right. Hg pointed out that at least one changg has already occurred in his officej away-from-the-office since the saljf of Coffee Connection was anj nounced.

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GLOBE STAFF PHOTO MICHELE MCDONALD Howard Schultz (left), chairman and CEO of Starbucks will acquire George Howell's Boston-based Coffee Connection in May..