New Orleans--Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, locally owned New Orleans coffee shops such as Rue de la Course, Puccino's, PJ's Coffee and Café Luna are packed with espresso-happy New Orleanians. Only Starbucks, the multibillion-dollar Seattle-based coffee powerhouse, remains closed.Rue de la Course, 3121 Magazine St., reopened Oct. 15 with only four employees compared with more than 30 pre-Katrina. Owner Jerry Roppolo said he had no choice."If I didn't open I'd be destitute," Roppolo said.

"If Starbucks doesn't open up, they got the rest of the world to make money off of. I think they're waiting for the city to get rebuilt to the point where it was before the hurricane, where everything is back to normal."At the corner of Washington Avenue and Magazine Street, a Starbucks location once filled with Frappuccino-sipping devotees sits empty with no "For Hire" signs in the windows or anything indicating it will reopen. Starbucks spokesman Alan Richardson said the company is committed to reopening all New Orleans locations and pointed to two in Metairie and Harahan that reopened two weeks ago. "We're anxious to get the rest of these stores open but we'll only do so when we can adequately staff them and when facilities are restored and emergency services are available," Richardson said. "Just opening your doors is one thing but we pride ourselves in great customer service and providing that great Starbucks experience."Starbucks has 10 locations in New Orleans and employs approximately 225 people.

Small staffs
Richardson said Starbucks is recruiting employees and will not open until it finds "energetic people with a passion for customer service and coffee." Other shops such as Rue de la Course and Café Luna reopened with bare-bone staffs and the effort is paying off. Roppolo said business is equal to what he was doing prior to Hurricane Katrina with only two of three stores, 3121 Magazine St. and 1140 S. Carrollton Ave. open for limited hours.

The third location, 1500 Magazine St., will not open for several months. It sustained heavy wind and water damage while looters in pickup trucks cleaned the place out, Roppolo said.The future of two franchise stores on Carondelet Street and St. Charles Avenue has yet to be determined. At Café Luna, directly across the street from a plywood-boarded Starbucks, owner Ernesto Montano opened Oct. 8 with only himself, his wife, his mother in-law and his 80-year-old grandmother who washed dishes.Montano also had to repair damage from an out-of-control car that bounced off a Homeland Security Humvee, knocked over a traffic light and concrete garbage can, smashed through his gate and crashed into Café Luna's patio. Yet Montano said business has never been better. "I don't think any amount of money on advertising would give you what has happened to us here," Montano said. "The customer response has been overwhelming.

"Danny Hebert, director of CC's Coffee House, said CC's has reopened eight of its 15 locations in New Orleans and on the North Shore. The stores that remain closed are 941 Royal St., 2800 Esplanade Ave., 650 Poydras St., 1452 Prytania St. and 3838 N. Causeway Blvd. Hebert said they have begun reconstruction on the Esplanade location, which suffered severe flood damage. "Royal Street should be the next to open and the only thing holding us back is employees," Hebert said. "More than 77,000 college students have been displaced and that's a big chunk of our employee base."

Nicole Hutson, brand manager of PJ's Coffee, said 14 New Orleans-area outlets are open and 10 are closed. She said more openings will follow pending approval from the state Department of Health and the reopening of Tulane University. The problem was getting delivery trucks in the area and vendor service, she said. "But we opened with almost an entirely full menu unlike others," Hutson said. PJ's roasting facility remains in New Orleans while its headquarters are now in Atlanta.

Unfortunate rumors
Richardson said Starbucks' commitment to New Orleans is reflected in its $5 million rebuilding pledge, the first $1 million of which went to the American Red Cross. The use of the remaining $4 million has yet to be determined. He said rumors Starbucks is pulling out of New Orleans are unfortunate."It's an area we absolutely have great plans for further development," he said. If Starbucks reopens all locations, how will that affect local coffee shops that struggled to reopen under difficult conditions? Not much, said Montano."This city is one of the few in the United States that still supports local businesses and I learned that coming from San Francisco, where you only have corporations in your neighborhood," Montano said. "This city is unique in that it has not yet sold out to the big corporations."