Dotty Griffith

To visitors, the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room looks and feels like an upscale java lovers’ theme park. Starbucks execs see the interactive coffee shop and restaurant, just blocks from the company’s original store at Seattle’s Pike Place Market, as “the next generation” of Starbucks.

Yum! Brands is at it again, rolling out another fast-casual test concept in the Dallas area. Instead of fried chicken (the subject of a previous test, SuperChix in Arlington, Texas), it’s floating Southeast Asian “street” sandwiches, known as banh mi.