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You'll want to visit Texas' first Starbucks Reserve Bar in Dallas, if only for the ice cream

No indie coffee shop in the Dallas-Fort Worth area operates like the brand-new Starbucks Reserve Bar in Uptown Dallas. In fact, no Starbucks in Texas operates like it, either. This new shop in the McKinney and Olive building is sexy and interactive. Coffee fiends are already buzzing.

It has the potential to perk up food and drink fanatics of all kinds: the simple drip coffee drinker, the caffeine addict, the gal who would really rather have a cocktail, the guy who prefers ice cream. Starbucks Reserve Bar offers a small-batch, or "craft," coffee experience that independent shops have mastered (and hipsters have potentially ruined), but in a glammy, theatrical way that feels like the handiwork of an $85 billion company.

It even sells mocktails and dessert. Order a $6.50 house affogato and you'll dive into two shots of espresso swirling in vanilla ice cream and brown-sugar syrup, with cinnamon on top. Sound good? It is.

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Starbucks serves ice cream? The new Starbucks Reserve Bar in Dallas does. Here's the house...
Starbucks serves ice cream? The new Starbucks Reserve Bar in Dallas does. Here's the house affogato: vanilla ice cream, two shots of espresso, brown-sugar syrup and cinnamon. Photos by Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer
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For now, the Uptown Dallas coffee shop is Texas' only Starbucks Reserve Bar, though more are expected to open in Austin and Plano soon.

The siphoning process is one of Starbucks Reserve Bars' most complex. Here, the dome shape...
The siphoning process is one of Starbucks Reserve Bars' most complex. Here, the dome shape of the coffee grounds, with the brewed coffee in the chamber below, show it was made correctly.

All Starbucks Reserve Bars in the country, in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and now Dallas, are modeled after the revered Roastery in Seattle. Starbucks reps emphasize the Reserve Bars' "sensory experiences" and "intention," which can feel a little hollow until you belly up to the bar yourself. When the baristas swizzle, steam and shake your drinks, both hot and cold, you can't help but feel like you're sitting in a front-row seat at a show. Coffee geeks are welcome to debate the differences in taste between coffee brewed via siphon and Chemex with the baristas.

Better still, the vibe is relaxed, not caffeinated.

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"Whatever you want to know about our coffee, they can tell you," District Manager Daniel Svoboda says. Test them; we did. In a flight of three cold brews ($10-$11), Svoboda noted the nutty, chocolatey and cola notes in the classic cold brew as he taught us to compare it to the other drinks. Then, when barista Emmi Lumkes brewed coffee from the siphon, she explained the relatively complicated, 10-minute process, including when she needed to "stir with a certain vigor" to get it just right.

As the bronze-colored siphon shot boiling water up into the brew chamber, it felt like every customer stopped to gawk at the equipment that looks like it belongs in a laboratory.

"You're the person at the bar" when you order a $10-$12 siphoned cup of coffee, Svoboda says.

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Another Instagram moment appeared when Lumkes made a Deconstructed Shakerato mocktail, which she shook vigorously an exact 30 times.

Interesting coffees at the new Starbucks Reserve Bar in Dallas:

Customers can order a flight of cold brew, which includes 8-ounce samples of 'regular' cold...
Customers can order a flight of cold brew, which includes 8-ounce samples of 'regular' cold brew, microblend cold brew and nitro cold brew. It's a lot of caffeine.
  • The Melrose: One a few mocktails on the Starbucks Reserve Bar menu, the $5 Melrose is inspired by an old fashioned, but with coffee (and without whiskey). It's made with cold brew and cherry bitters over ice, garnished with a cherry.
  • Flights of coffee: You can sample three 8-ounce cold brews -- including the talked-about nitro cold brew, which looks like a cup of Guinness -- for $10-11. Or, try two hot 12-ounce brews from the Clover and pour-over for $8-$9.
  • Growlers: Customers who like cold brew can pay to fill a growler and take it home.
  • Coffee and food pairings: Just like wine, coffee also pairs with food, the baristas say. On opening day, Starbucks Reserve Bar displayed three pastries next to recommended coffees.
  • Nitro cold brew: One taster described it as having a "mouthfeel like Champagne." This alcohol-free drink is cold brew, jazzed up with nitrogen bubbles and served from a tap.
  • Siphon brewing: It's the flashiest, most time-consuming method at Starbucks Reserve Bar and costs $10-$12. Keep an eye out at the end of the 10-minute brewing process: If the coffee grounds form a dome, that means it was "brewed perfectly," Svoboda says.
  • Deconstructed Shakerato: You choose your own adventure here: A barista will shake espresso and brown-sugar syrup with ice, then pour it into a cup. It's served on a walnut tray with a side of vanilla sweet cream. Pour in as much cream as you like to sweeten the drink.
  • Cold brew float: All four of the coffee and ice cream drinks are bound to be popular. Here's one: A scoop of vanilla ice cream with cold brew poured overtop, for $7.50-$8. For $1 more, choose nitro cold brew instead. All dessert drinks are available to go.

This Starbucks Reserve Bar doesn't sell alcohol -- and it won't, Starbucks spokeswoman Holly Hart Shafer confirmed in May.

Customers have two options: Head to the "regular" Starbucks counter at the back for pastries and all the coffee drinks found at other Starbucks stores. Or, grab a low seat at the bar, gab with a barista, open a tab and pay at the end, just like you would at a cocktail den.

Though the drinks at the Reserve Bar will cost more than classic Starbucks drinks -- and certainly more than a cup from your CoffeeMate at home -- their $12 cup of coffee is really aimed at serious coffee drinkers who can appreciate the time that goes into a single cup.

If Starbucks Reserve Bars are the future of fancy coffee, we're in for a stylish treat.

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Look inside Texas' first Starbucks Reserve Bar in Dallas on opening day: