I’ve often felt that though we’ve got our beautiful campus, our stellar seminars and our basketball games with their attendant cheers, there’s something missing at UCLA. Our coffeehouses, which should be the vibrant, pulsing heart of any campus community, are downright terrible.
Associated Students UCLA should remodel them. Schools such as Harvard, Yale and the University of Chicago all have great on-campus coffeehouses. They’ve created space for their students, scholars and staff to relax and linger, to come together ““ spaces in which large universities seem small.
These embody everything in a great coffeehouse. The coffee should be great; the environment should soothe your soul and stimulate conversation between you and your companions. You should want to stay, even if you’ve got a meeting in 10.
Our coffeehouses sadly have none of these qualities. They’re loud, uncomfortable places. Compared to the scores of quirky, idiosyncratic shops around the city, such as the Bourgeois Pig in Hollywood or the Novel Cafe in Santa Monica, they have zero character.
The uniforms of the student employees provide perhaps a visual metaphor defining the distinction between our coffeehouses and, well, good ones. These drab, blue-gray polo shirts seem more suited to a gas station than to a cafe. The shops are places you go to quickly refuel and leave as soon as possible.
The coffeehouses were originally designed to accommodate a “very high throughput,” said Bob Williams, executive director of ASUCLA, in an e-mail.
Though sales numbers are high, they don’t reflect how students value the experience of the coffee shop, since they tend to leave immediately.
Here’s how ASUCLA could improve.
Coffee quality is preeminent. The coffee now is alternately watery, burnt or bitter. ASUCLA should bring in a reputable vendor, such as Peet’s, to supply not only higher quality tea and coffee but also to give top-notch barista training and equipment to the employees. Berkeley has an arrangement like this ““ an excellent student-run, but Peet’s-sponsored shop near campus.
Second, they should dump the mediocre sushi, garish Baskin-Robbins ice cream and preservative-laden muffins in order to serve up a more coherent menu. ASUCLA adopted this incongruous selection of foods in an attempt to please every possible customer, but ended up with an array of foods fit better for multiple grocery aisles than a menu. A coherent menu instead would help define the cafes’ character. One shop could focus on pastries and panini, another on good sushi and Chinese pastries, and another on fruit, salads and fresh breads.
There’s reticence about such reforms.
Cindy Bolton, director of ASUCLA restaurants, told me they had thought about bringing in a corporate vendor before, but were worried that such a move could raise prices. Students, they fear, would revolt.
Such concern, however, is not warranted. Espresso Roma, a corporate franchise nestled in the courtyard of the UCLA Anderson School of Management ““ appropriately the one segment of the campus coffee market free of ASUCLA’s stultifying monopoly ““ manages to serve superior goods at lower prices. A small cup costs a dollar there and $1.15 in Kerckhoff Coffeehouse. It seems that corporations can get on just fine offering low prices.
Besides, even if prices did go up, I’d be willing to pay a bit more for improved coffee quality and ambiance. Given the number of students that tramp down to Westwood’s coffee shops, it’s clear I’m not alone.
Third, ASUCLA should remodel the shops themselves so they affect the cozy Bohemian ambience a college coffee shop should.
The current situation is grim. There are no armchairs or deep couches into which you could recline languorously with an afternoon latte. At Jimmy’s, the couches are covered in sticky plastic better suited to a hospital cafeteria than to a great university. The acoustics, too, are harsh, which is all the worse since they tend to amplify top-40 pop music instead of the jazz and indie so intrinsic to the ambience of a good coffeehouse.
ASUCLA should fix these travesties by hiring an interior designer to bring in softer floors and walls, funky antique furniture and up-to-date, engaging photography and paintings. Drop the uniforms and let the employees be individuals. Laura Katz, general manager of UCLAradio.com, says her DJs would be happy to curate music for the houses.
People feel a sense of kinship if they have a space in which to come together. At a university, the coffeehouse is supposed to be that space. Let’s make ours live up to that purpose.