Trouble Brewing : Berkeley Coffeehouses Set Ground Rules on Studying

Allen Ginsberg used to sit in Berkeley’s cafes all day, writing beatnik poetry. Visiting French philosopher Michel Foucault held his office hours in them, meeting with students for hours on end.

The activists of the 1960s met in the cafes to plan the demonstrations and insurrections that made the city famous.

But with final exams under way, UC Berkeley students are finding that they are less than welcome at several of the city’s more popular coffeehouses, which have barred or limited studying during peak business hours.

In a city which considers itself the coffee Mecca of the United States--a student can choose from about 30 cafes within two miles of campus--restrictions on study hours have become a veritable tempest in a coffeepot.

“I think it’s greedy,” said Alexa Smith, spreading her corporate law notes and books across a Caffe Espresso Roma table meant for six. “The owners in Berkeley cafes are making a killing. They’re making it because of students. Cafe life is a student type of thing.”

The problem, cafe owners say, is that students have taken over, turning what ought to be lively social centers into silent--and unprofitable--study halls.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Scott Grenfell, manager of nearby north Oakland’s Edible Complex, who says his cafe used to be filled every evening with students sitting alone, noses buried in books, nursing their lattes for hours. “It’s like you’re in a dead zone. There’s nothing going on. It’s absurd.”

Now a sign next to the cash register prohibits studying at the Edible Complex during evenings and weekends. But Grenfell says he usually allows students to stay for an hour.

“No one has a little egg timer on the table,” he said. “But we’re trying to cut a reasonable approach that meets the needs of students, the needs of other community members, and my business interests.”

At the heart of the issue is a disagreement over what exactly a cup of coffee buys. Students say it is equivalent to rent, and entitles them to stay in the cafe as long as they want. Management--who see older and wealthier customers turn away because they can’t find tables--says students should recognize they serve other patrons too.

Berkeley has long been known for its coffee culture, and the cognoscenti can tick off the history and clientele of each cafe in the city. But the controversy at hand--one customer compared the swarming students to a termite infestation--has been brewing for several years, as budget cuts have forced the university to limit library hours.

Last semester’s graduate student strike even forced entire classes to meet in cafes.

“It’s become us against them almost, and it shouldn’t be,” said Scott Levin, manager of Espresso Roma, which confined studying to a side room during last semester’s finals.

“I don’t feel like we’re turning our backs on anybody. We’re trying to accommodate as many people as we can,” Levin said. But, he added, limiting your stay when others are waiting “is a matter of common courtesy. It’s like giving up your seat to an old lady on the bus.”

Espresso Roma owner Sandy Boyd--who owns 30 cafes in college towns, including eight in Berkeley--had considered restricting studying again this semester. But he said the negative publicity around the issue has changed his mind.

Still, the warning has not been lost on students.

“I feel a sort of moral pressure to leave,” said graduate student and teaching assistant Nick Chapman, who holds office hours in Boyd’s trendy Caffe Milano across from campus. Chapman studies up to six hours a day in cafes, spending an estimated $500 each semester on coffee and snacks.

“Look, I’m taking up a table for four people, and I’ve had one coffee and one pastry,” he said, his laptop computer plugged into Espresso Roma’s wall socket. But, he added, the present controversy “does make me not stay as long as I otherwise would have, or I buy more things.”

Though Edible Complex’s Grenfell says students sympathize with his plight, many students say they avoid cafes that have implemented no-studying-when-busy policies. That’s a boon for coffeehouses that have not restricted studying.

“We’re kind of coming off as this heroic cafe, as the ones who are allowing students to stay as long as they want,” said Daryl Ross, owner of Caffe Strada, a bustling patio cafe and foreign-student hub across from the law school. Berkeley’s highest-grossing coffeehouse, Strada relies on students for about 90% of its business.

“I can’t imagine coming up to a student and saying, ‘Your time’s up, get out of the chair,’ ” Ross said. “Part of being a student and going to cafes is being able to nurse your cappuccino for four hours if you want to.”