So, did anyone notice that the Harkness Café (I mean Jazzman’s Café) is open? Finally, after weeks of construction and hurricane-related delays, the students of Connecticut College have yet another option for quenching their late-night thirsts for espresso beans, and I will no longer be woken up at 7 AM by the sounds of drilling and hammering. Talk about a win-win situation.
However, the opening of yet another café on this campus begs the question, “Why?” Coffee Grounds, in KB, and the Coffee Closet, in Cummings, are two entirely student-run cafés that do an excellent job of caffeinating the student population already, and the Blue Camel Café, conveniently located in Shain Library, is managed by a woman who lives in the greater New London area. So why do we need to bring in outside corporations to encroach on the metaphorical territory that is so well managed by students and local people? And just how many coffee shops do 1,800 students need?
There must be something to set this café apart from all the rest, right? WIll it be open at convenient hours? During the few weeks before the top-secret opening of the café, my friends and I labored under the delusion that this café would provide us with an alternate breakfast option on days when we would be running late, or on Sundays, when the walk to Harris becomes five miles long. Unfortunately, the café opens at 2 PM, thereby negating that possibility.
Maybe it’ll be a really cool space. Abigail Stevenson ’14, a student worker at the café, says, “It’s different from other snack shops on campus because of the vibe.” I’m not sure what the intended vibe of the café is, but the only vibe I felt from the uniforms, printed menus and bare walls when I stopped by was mall food court. Although, I suppose that is a distinguishing feature.
Maybe the food and drinks will be excellent. Well, not unlike our other options on campus, the food at Jazzman’s café is homemade from fresh ingredients (I have this information on good authority from a shift manager)! But by “homemade,” she means made by Sodexo… at Mitchell College (except for the pastries, which are churned out by the infamous Harris Bakery and price tagged).
I’m still unsure. While I understand that many other colleges and universities provide their students with cafés and snack shops that are run by outside corporations, I don’t see a place for such cafés at Conn. We are such a small community that it feels unfitting to introduce large corporations that ultimately do nothing more than take customers away from our community-run businesses. •
