The Warren Tower Starbucks and its dangling green and white logo is hard to miss, but Espresso Royale’s small city storefront crammed underneath an elevated parking lot doesn’t seem to stop Boston University students from sipping in the smaller coffeehouse.

With the new Starbucks bringing the total number of franchises on and around the Charles River Campus to five, smaller coffee shops could potentially have trouble attracting customers, but Espresso Royale store manager Chuck Hale said he does not try to emulate the coffee giant.

“That’s really all you can do to battle a big name like Starbucks, is to prove why you are not Starbucks,” Hale, who works on Commonwealth Avenue, said.

Boston Espresso Royale owner Larry Margulies said he used to be afraid of Starbucks.

While Margulies, a 1997 BU alumnus, said he is upset with his alma mater for giving him more competition, he does not live in fear, because in his mind Espresso Royale offers a product Starbucks cannot match, he said.

The three Espresso Royale locations in Boston are entirely independent from the franchise that started in San Francisco and now has cafes in seven states across the country, Margulies said.

Although his stores share a logo and name with the bigger company, Margulies pays no franchise fees and makes all of his own decisions, allowing his Espresso Royales to be unique from larger corporations, Margulies said.

Answering to no one permits Margulies to respond quickly to customer demands, he said. When he walked into the Commonwealth Avenue store one day and saw that his manager had added a new spicy sandwich featuring ham and jalape’ntilde;o peppers to the menu, Margulies decided on the spot to keep it, he said.

“If you want two cookies with some cream cheese between them, I’ll sell it to you,” Margulies said.

Espresso Royale, however, thinks its coffee alone will keep its customers from overlooking the cafe, Margulies said. The store has gone as far as hiring a full-time drink trainer to help its employees learn how to work the bar.

“Starbucks’ espresso machines are all automatic. They are essentially vending machines,” Margulies said.

At the Espresso Royale on Commonwealth Avenue, there’s a constant murmur – people chatting playfully, the hiss of the espresso makers and a steady bass line radiating calmingly from the store’s speakers.

“People come here because they don’t want to go to Starbucks,” employee Michelle Silver, a College of Communication senior, said. “They feel at home here. It’s like their second living room. They sit in the back and hang out.”

The customers can always count on being comfortable, too, customer and College of Arts and Sciences junior Claire Thomas said.

“I sleep on that couch in the summer,” she said, gesturing toward a low-rising, vintage sofa in the back of the room.