Texas man aims to visit every Starbucks

Texas man aims to visit every Starbucks

at 11:44 on August 9, 2005, EST.
CHUCK BROWN

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) - Documenting a caffeine-powered quest to visit every Starbucks in the world has become the mission of a Nebraska attorney.

Bill Tangeman, 32, of Kearney, who was a journalist before going into law, is making a documentary film about a Houston native who goes by the name Winter, who set out in 1997 to get a caffeinated drink at every corporate-owned Starbucks store on the planet.

On his Web site http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net Winter, who was born Rafael Antonio Lozano, said that as of Aug. 8, he had visited 4,775 Starbucks in North America and 213 in other parts of world. Outside of North America, Winter has gone to Starbucks in Spain, England, France and Japan. There are 5,715 corporate-owned Starbucks in the world, according to the Seattle-based company's August newsletter on it Web site.

Winter said his trek has been satisfactory on many levels, not the least of which is that it has allowed him to be on a nearly constant road trip for eight years.

But having the incessant goal of reaching the next Starbucks provided another benefit.

"Every time I reach a Starbucks I feel like I've accomplished something," Winter said, "when actually I have accomplished nothing."

Tangeman wanted to film a documentary for years. When he read an article about Winter last year, he realized he had found his muse.

"I found his story fascinating," Tangeman said Monday.

Tangeman got in touch with Winter and has since spent several days on the road with him, gathering about 40 hours of film for the movie, which will be called, "Starbucking."

The 33-year-old Winter said he is baffled by the attention his quest has gathered.

"I'm tickled pink that anybody would want to make a movie about my project," Winter said.

Tangeman, who has been a deputy county attorney in Buffalo County since 2003, uses vacation time and long weekends to meet Winter at various spots around the country.

The two will meet again late this month in Reno, Nev., where Winter will begin another leg of his tour - this one into Northern California.

"It's been a lot of fun," Tangeman said. "I've been to 22 states with him."

On one trip, Tangeman and Winter gave a presentation, including a screening of a "Starbucking" trailer, at the University of California-Santa Barbara. On this Southern California tour, Winter set a personal single-day record by visiting 29 Starbucks.

"On the day he hit 29 stores he wasn't feeling too good," Tangeman said. "He was a little nauseous."

Winter has visited Tangeman at his home and even grabbed a cup of coffee from a local shop. But he was deprived of his Starbucks fix: There aren't any corporate-owned stores in Kearney, 126 miles west of Lincoln.

Tangeman said Winter has visited every corporate-owned Starbucks in Nebraska except for one that was just finished in Omaha. The speed at which new Starbucks are opened has been a major obstacle in Winter's quest, Tangeman said.

Tangeman wants to complete "Starbucking" by the end of the year in hopes of submitting it to the Sundance Film Festival, which begins in late January in Utah.

"I am pretty close to having everything I need," Tangeman said.

If Sundance doesn't accept the film, Tangeman said, he will submit it to other festivals.

"There's a million film festivals, so hopefully we'll find someone who will take it," he said.

Winter, who earns money to keep his quest going by doing computer programming work, and currently lives in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md., said he and Tangeman will split whatever profits the movie may make.

Winter hopes the movie does well. One basic reason for his hopes is that it could give him more money to continue his quest.

And some of the perks of fame that might come if the film is successful, like maybe meeting Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson, wouldn't be too bad either, Winter said.

"On a superficial level," Winter said, "celebrity has its benefits."

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