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Thursday, October 1, 1998
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Stores cater to studying needs
Students seek new settings to hit the books
Lauren Mermel, Chicago senior, writes notes late Tuesday night at The Java Break, a local coffee house. The Java Break, 17 E. Seventh St., is a popular late night study place for many students. Photo by Matt L. Dauhinhery/KANSAN
By Lori O'Toole
Kansan correspondent
Bottomless drinks, food and relaxed atmospheres lure students from libraries and homes to study at restaurants and coffee shops — and the managements do not mind at all.
The Java Break, 17 E. 7th St., is no exception.
"It's probably 95 percent students in here at night," Cynthia Davis, employee, said. "We have five or six regulars here during the day, but I see them all the time studying. It's just to get you out of the house."
"Students can study anytime of the day and night, have a cup of coffee, smoke a cigarette, feel comfortable with the environment," Ghosheh said.
Waddah Ghosheh, Perkins manager, said he could almost always find someone with a book open at his location, which is open 24-hours.
Several locations in Lawrence welcome students to use their business for studying and try to accommodate them as much as possible.
The Java Break also provides a variety of resources to their studious visitors.
"We have two back rooms, lots of tables inside and outside, coffee to keep you awake, a small used book collection, a dictionary, a newsstand, couches, two lazy chairs and two computers for use," Davis said.
While use of the computers requires a fee, $6 an hour or 10 cents a minute, Davis said the other resources were available for no charge.
Border's Books & Music Cafe, 700 New Hampshire St., is another location offering resources to students. Casey Chorice, Border's employee, said that in addition to the books for sale, the bookstore also provided a reference section.
"I think that's why a lot of people study here is because there's so much available," Chorice said. "You're allowed to bring the reference books back to the cafe."
But references are not the only benefits students find studying off-campus.
"I'm pretty fond of the coffee shops
downtown," Josh Cronemeyer, Lawrence junior, said. "If I study at home, I get nothing done. If I study at the library, I fall asleep. These places have a good balance. There's just enough noise to keep me awake."
Jessica Allin, Leavenworth junior, said it was easier for her to concentrate with the quiet background noise as well. But she admitted that was not the only thing she enjoyed about studying off-campus.
"When you have a group of friends to go study, you can socialize and get your studying done at the same time," she said. "It's kind of neat."
While many locations welcome students, managers and employees agree that customers come first. Several restaurants have policies
regarding this situation.
"We have a study-time-limited policy of one hour without a meal and two hours with a meal," Ghosheh said. "We enforce that when necessary. If I don't need the space, I won't enforce it. If I have the room, you can sit there all day. We have to be considerate to our customers."
The Java Break, like Perkins,
posts a study policy in their store.
"The only policy that we have is one drink per hour," Davis said. "Also, if there's a lot of people and not a lot of space, we ask people to combine tables."
In addition to being considerate of the time factor, Allin said she felt obligated to purchase something in exchange for using a business's space.
"I always get something, even if it's just a drink," she said.
Chorice said there was no pressure for students to buy anything while studying.
"The majority of the students purchase at least something from the cafe," she said. "We don't push it for them to buy anything; most just do."
While the off campus studying option works well for many students, Ghosheh said the business benefited as well.
Cronemeyer also said the off-campus setting helped him keep his mind focused on his studies.
"People get used to studying here, so when they're not studying, they will still come here," he said.
"When I'm at home, I've got my hobbies right next to me and I have a tendency to read things I don't need to read for school and do things I enjoy," he said. "Plus I can't make coffee anyway."
Grabbing a cup of java in Lawrence
By Doua Pacey
Kansan correspondent
One place to indulge in a cup of coffee is Java Break, at Seventh and Massachusetts streets. The Java Break is open 24 hours and recently
installed two Macintosh computers. This is Lawrence's only coffee shop that offers computer access to its patrons.
Lawrence may not have an espresso cart on every street corner like the caffeine fiends of Seattle or even the posh, sophisticated coffee shops one might expect to find in New York; but Lawrence's caffeine scene has a style distinctly its own.
A constant at The Java Break is its mixed clientele, said owner Derek Hogan.
"Sometimes I'll look around and there will be a table of 40-somethings, a table with skin heads, young couples, students and college professors," he said.
Andrew Stowers, The Java Break employee, said the reason there was such a diverse clientele was
because of The Java Break's laidback atmosphere.
Another downtown coffee shop is Java Dive, 10 E. Ninth St. Java Dive draws a large amount of business professionals, and it is a non-smoking cafe, said Adam Mursmann, Java Dive employee.
"Almost anyone can come in here and feel comfortable," said Stowers.
James Neighbor, Java Dive employee, said that Java Dive was not more conservative than other coffee shops, but it did have more of a study crowd and was a little quieter.
La Prima Tazza, 638 Mass. St., also serves caffeine addicts. It's a good place to watch people as well as drink coffee, said Amy Giedratis, La Prima Tazza employee.
"In the mornings, we get a lot of business people from Mercantile Office Towers," he said. "In the afternoons, it's mainly students, but there are other people here, too."
"I could do that all day when I'm working here," she said. "People
- The Bay Leaf, 725 Mass. St.
- Bourgeois Pig, 6 E. Ninth St.
- Brits, 732 Mass. St.
CAFFEINE SOURCES
Classic Gourmet, 735 Mass. St.
944 Mass.
832-8228
- The Java Break, 17 E, Seventh St
- Java Dive, 10.5 W, Fifth St
Java Dive, TOE. Ninth St
Luther, 1105 More, St
Jesters', 1105 Mass, St.
River, Trinity, 420 St.
- La Prima Tazza, 638 Mass. St.
- Milton's Coffee & Wine. 920
Milton's Coffee & Wine, 920 Mass. St.
Mutha's Kitchen, 620 W. 12th St
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory,
1 Riverfront Plaza
Universal Blends, 1401 Kasold Drive
will come in and sit by the window and just watch people walk by on Massachusetts Street."
"Depending on what time you're there, you can see some interesting people walk by," she said.
Border's Cafe offers something that other coffee shops in Lawrence do not. Because of its location
Meg Larson-Heald, Lindsborg senior, agreed.
inside Border's Books and Music, New Hampshire and Seventh streets, customers are allowed to browse through books while sipping their lattes.
"The best thing about this is that people can take their books into the cafe and read some of it before buying them," said Larry Brinkman, Border's employee. "It's like a listening station but for books."
The Bourgeois Pig, 6 E. Ninth St,
is next to Java Dive and has a full
selection of coffee and a bar.
"This is a pretty eclectic coffee shop," said manager Brian Blankenship. "We get a lot of graduate, foreign students and professionals here."
But Lawrence seems to be missing something that the rest of the country has in abundance: Starbucks. Most of Lawrence's coffee-shop employees said that a Starbucks would not fare well here because the coffee market is already saturated, and that the people of Lawrence would rather support locally owned businesses and not big companies.
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