At some point after coming back to school for the first time in years, I decided the experience wasn't complete without a visit to the UCD Coffee House. Now to be honest, although it's been a long time since I had taken classes I have been on the campus off and on teaching at the Craft Center, guiding trips for Outdoor Adventures and a variety of other activities. I mean, let's face it, if you live in a college town it's pretty hard to avoid “The College”. So after about a week of classes I was feeling the need for caffeine and I thought with great excitement “hey – I can go to the Coffee House”.
Now when I first got here as a student years ago the Coffee House was sort of a shack on the east side of the Memorial Union which like most of the rest of campus had not been updated or remodeled in years. They were always battling cockroaches and barely staying ahead of the health departments's axe. It had old beat up wooden paneling, worn out tables and chairs, thread bare thirty year old couches and an old upright piano sitting off to one side and never quite in tune. Amateur “Chopins” would randomly come in, sit down and play everything from “Moonlight Sonata” to the ever hated “Chopsticks”. So the place had issues but it w
as all part of the charm and we loved it.
At some point later after I had left school I heard that they day had come when the Coffee House had come head to head with the health department and lost. The campus administration had always had a tenuous relationship with the Coffee House but the students loved it like an old flea bitten dog and if it were to be closed down the resulting protest would likely make the six o'clock news destroy every last bit of lawn in the quad area. Two thing motivate college students: the first is the promise of free beer and the second is any sort of interruption in their supply of caffeine.
So the administration opened their purse to help out the Coffee House for the first time since Amelia Earhart went missing. Once the resulting moth cloud dissipated they got to work and started a remodeling and upgrade process that stretched over twenty years, cost millions of dollars and saw the Coffee House move to several locations.
The first big renovation lasted on and off over the next 5 years and when finished unveiled a bigger brighter, all new state of the art Coffee House on the west side of the Memorial Union. Upon returning for Picnic day visits aging alums grumbled and groaned that it looked like a shopping mall and had been completely stripped of it's “homey” charm – not to mention the cockroaches. New students, however loved the new building having known nothing else. Eventually, however there turned out to be construction issues due to cost cutting misjudgements that seemed to plague many of the new projects in the late nineties. So soon talk began about remodeling and moving the Coffee house once again to make it “stronger, faster and sleeker” then ever before. The more recent students picked up the “grumble” baton from the alums and ran with it, taking their place in a long line constant construction critics.
Fast forward to now, and the Coffee House has been through several moves. When I returned recently to get my all new 2009 cup of adrenaline I was amazed to find the Coffee House where?......right back where it was 20 years ago. Not only that, but it had been divided into a half dozen small shops categorized by the different products they sell so that if you wanted a cup of coffee, a piece of fruit and a sandwich you would literally have to go through three different small shops each with their own cash register. With horror I sat contemplating how this could possibly be an improvement when I noticed a display in the hallway that ran between all the shops and explained everything. I sighed in relief as I realized this location was temporary. The newer more bionic coffee shop would be unveiled back on the west side of the MU in 2010. Further, the display was actually quite delightful and had a great collection of articles and photos chronicling the trials, tribulations and travels of the Coffee House from it's humble roach hotel beginnings to the soon-to-be-unveiled “Taj Mahal” that is apparently underway only a hundred feet away.
upper left photo - the recent, compartmentalized coffee house
lower right photo - display of pictures of the coffee house over the years
The UCD Coffee house is open Monday through Saturday 7 am to 6 pm – if you come by bring small bills and some patience
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