A Starbucks becomes a port after the storm
GONZALES, La. -- They drive up to the
This store in Gonzales, the last open Starbucks before the devastation of New Orleans, has become a hub for police and rescue workers here, who work 12-hour shifts guarding against looters and carrying on the grim search of the city's fetid floodwaters.
''This is a little bit of civilization," said Scott Smith, a task force leader here for the swift water rescue team, who ordered a latte with four shots of espresso. Like many other weary customers, this is their primary source of caffeine. He has spent the last several weeks on boats in the New Orleans water looking for people to rescue. In the last several days, though, he has found only dead bodies floating in the muck.
At the Starbucks, where nearly every customer has been affected by the hurricane, employees have quit asking, ''How are you doing?" because they are afraid of what they might hear in response. Instead they say, ''We're glad you're here."
In line, two paramedics mentioned just before ordering their drinks that their rescue dog had taken a sip of the New Orleans floodwater and died a half hour later. Another couple, on their way to visit their New Orleans home for the first time since the storm, worried that it was under water.
As rescue workers and evacuees have inundated the area, business at the Gonzales Starbucks has doubled. It has run out of most breakfast foods, especially coffee cake and blueberry muffins. Employees started serving jumbo cookies in the mornings instead.
There also has been a run on Starbucks' largest drink size, venti. The store ran out of venti cups and lids for the next-largest size, grande. ''We had one guy get eight shots" of espresso, said Jennifer Hicks, Starbucks' district manager.
While waiting for her nonfat latte, Ruth Landis leaned over the coffee bar to talk to a Starbucks employee, who asked how her home had fared. She told him she was one of the lucky ones: ''We have two trees down, and no fencing, but that's what insurance is for," she said.
Many of the customers at the Gonzales Starbucks store are on their way to help the hundreds of stranded dogs and cats in New Orleans that their owners were forced to abandon in their homes. Some of the pets have not eaten since the storm.
''I found two dead dogs and a dead cat," said Jim Shimberg, a volunteer here from Campton, N.H., who went to New Orleans with a car full of dog food to help pets until their owners can return.
Some customers, who have lost everything, come to Starbucks because it is familiar. ''One lady told us, 'I have no control over my house or my car, but I have control over my drink,' " said Hicks, the district manager. The customer's order, at a store in Baton Rouge: a venti soy latte, with one packet of Equal and one of Sweet'N Low, no foam, heated to 160 degrees.
Nearly every evening, a group of military police working at a nearby shelter make a Starbucks run. Brandon Pelke, a specialist in the Arizona National Guard who was designated for Starbucks duty earlier this week, left the store with eight mocha Frappuccinos, which he put on the seat of his Humvee.
Pelke finds the work at the shelter depressing -- some of the evacuees resent the police presence, and the other day, his group had to shut down the showers because of unsanitary conditions.
With all that, he said, Starbucks has become the best part of his night. ''That and
Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com. 
