Gathering Place Quotes

While we are a coffee company at heart, Starbucks provides much more than the best cup of coffee—we offer a community gathering place where people come together to connect and discover new things.

When they told me there would be a statue erected at Wrigley Field, I was happy with that. I know there will be a meeting place for a lot of people. There will be a conversation every day. They say now, 'I'll meet you at Ernie Banks' statue.' After Sept. 7, they'll say, 'I'll meet you by Billy Williams' statue.'

In Chino Hills, everybody is cool with everybody, so I had a lot of friends. My house was kind of the hang out house, where everybody would come over.

Cooking is the best occupational therapy for me. And when I cook, everybody comes to eat. It's the greatest thing.

When I say, 'Everybody to the table and eat,' I mean it. That is the glue, the center that holds the family, that gives security. Good food brings everybody to the table.

I'm in a loft and the kitchen is in the very center of the apartment. The whole place revolves around it.

The kitchen is the heart of every home, for the most part. It evokes memories of your family history.

A place where we all go can't be bad.

But there was no room at the inn"; the inn is the gathering place of public opinion; so often public opinion locks its doors to the King.

I think a coffee table is one of the most important things. It's where everything happens.

Why do guests always end up in the kitchen at parties? Is it a social phenomenon? Some strange gravitational pull? I don't know, but one thing is for sure: If your friends are going to congregate in your kitchen, you'd better make it as nice as possible.

When my kids were young, we used to go to a place called The Shrine of the Black Madonna in Houston. It was an African-American bookstore where they sold paintings, but they also had a room that was an all-purpose center. If you wanted to have a dance recital or anything that was related to the community activities, you could have it there.

Long before Starbucks popularized the phrase 'the third place' - somewhere to interact outside of work and home - it was neighborhood restaurants that helped to define places like Union Square.

I lingered most about the fireplace, as the most vital part of the house.

Customers don't always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they weren't enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call "the third place" ... a gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect.. they found we were filling a need they didn't know they had.

The kitchen is the heart of our home.

Food is so important - it sustains us, it provides a social focal point, and it is fun. I cannot unravel the difference between love in my family and the preparation of food because they are so closely woven.

The grill is the summer equivalent of a fireplace; everyone gravitates to it.

It's nice when there's stuff in the middle of the table. That's when the best conversations start to happen.

I get up early, go to the coffee shop to play cards for a while.

The kitchen is the heart of the house.

I've always had lots of friends and my house was the house they all hung out at.

To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.

The Jumble Shop would be one place where we'd sometimes accumulate down in the Village. I think it might be just a place that's unknown that was right around the corner from wherever it was that we met.

Food feeds our souls. It is the single great unifier across all cultures. The table offers a sanctuary and a place to come together for unity and understanding.