Growth reaches 2nd-Starbucks level

Shopping center has two stores

PITTSBORO -- It's hard to call yourself a small town when Starbucks moves in.

Especially when a second one pops up across the street.

That happens in New York and D.C. But Chatham County?

And, yet, there are two in the Chatham Downs shopping center along U.S. 15-501 between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill.

One is a stand-alone store. The other is across the parking lot inside the Harris Teeter.

"This is really ridiculous," said Bonnie Rardin, a tea drinker.

Rardin wants more family restaurants. Not a coffee house. Let alone two. Of the same kind.

The Starbuckses are poised to serve thousands of java junkies. They're up the way from Fearrington Village, a haven for wealthy retirees, and across from Briar Chapel, a future 2,300-home subdivision.

Greta Jester, a Fearrington Village resident, loves the Starbuckses.

She started at the Harris Teeter's when it opened about six months ago.

But she switched to the freestanding store when it opened Jan. 5.

And she is already a regular. Every morning, she orders her usual: two shots, foam only skinny espresso double macchiato cappuccino.

"It's just like I had in Bologna, Italy," she said.

And now, when she's sipping her demitasse there, it's just like she has in Chatham.