Feeding a Need for the Net

A visitor from Indiana checks on her e-mail, while a college student researches the latest data on the rain forest. She’s drinking a cafe latte, he’s munching a bagel. At another station, a customer navigates the Internet while his salad wilts. It’s a typical day at a cyber cafe, one of more than 400 that have sprouted up around the world, from Simi Valley and Ventura to Paris and Bangkok.

What isn’t typical yet is the cyber cafe concept. From rudimentary to high tech, the cafes run the gamut from glitz to grunge, from your basic coffeehouse equipped with one or two online computers to full-service restaurants where you can arrange audio-visual teleconferencing with a business associate in London.

The decor may be vintage thrift store or decorator chic, but access to the Internet along with food and drink is the common thread. So what’s luring people of all ages to surf the Net in these public places?

“Try-before-you-buy is the reason a lot of people come in. There’s so much technology out there, people don’t have the time or money to check it all out. That’s what we offer,” said Tomas Wise, co-owner of New York’s Cyber Cafe Inc. The company holds the only official trademark on the Cyber Cafe name, which has since gone generic.

Located in Manhattan’s media center, which Wise laughingly refers to as Silicon Alley, the cafe caters to a professional clientele that includes hardware and software developers. Consequently, his upscale operation has the fastest and latest equipment.

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There are experts on staff to service, advise and train people. The T1 line, the fastest available at the moment, can accommodate 100 computers at a time, although there are only nine on site right now. A client with a portable computer and an Internet card can plug into one of the cafe’s portable jacks, have a T1 at their disposal and download onto their own computer. Is the high-tech expense worth it? Wise believes it is.

“The history of cafes has been as places to meet your friends, communicate, read your papers, write and correspond,” he said. “The idea is to revolutionize cafes as communications change and people communicate in different ways.”

A far cry from the days of the neighborhood diner with mini jukeboxes at each table, cyber cafes attract people who seek a connection to the world at their fingertips and a desire for a sense of community in this technological age.

In our own backyard, there’s Cyber House in Simi and the SurfNet Cafe in Ventura. Those heading up or down the coast will stumble upon a number of coffeehouses that have a few computers thrown into the mix.

And those interested in a major media blow-out (and who don’t mind driving to get one) may want to consider checking out the show business-oriented Industry Cyber Cafe in West Hollywood or the Virtual Cineplex at Media City Center mall in Burbank.

The SurfNet Cafe, nestled among a row of offices in a Ventura business complex, is not easily found by walk-ins, but word has been getting around since it opened last November. In fact, Steve LeCroy, co-owner with his brother, Jim, said one woman came in after hearing about the place while on a chat line with a friend in Ireland.

“The food and coffee is the reason we’re still around. The Internet is about 20% of our income,” he said. Customers stream in throughout the day for coffee, muffins, bagels to go. Cruising the Net is free while you wait for a food order. Otherwise, the cost is $6 an hour, or 10 cents a minute.

The place is airy with floor-to-ceiling windows, magazines and free newspapers on a rack. The menu board features everything from breakfast burritos to grilled chicken sandwiches. Renee Smith, LeCroy’s fiancee and partner, cooks and keeps the place humming. LeCroy is the computer expert, offering free classes Wednesday and Thursday evenings. But you can get help on the spot most of the time, with the possible exception of noon through 2 p.m. weekdays when LeCroy said the place is like a zoo.

Many of SurfNet’s customers are business people from the area, some are college students doing research or relaxing by zapping the enemy in cyber space.

A typical professional user is Troy Van Natta, a Web page developer from Santa Barbara, who on a recent day was showing local Art City sculptors, Alexandra Morosco and Joanne Duby, a Web page he had designed for them.

Duby referred to herself as computer stupid but said she is open to learning. There was barely room for the Cobb salad and oversized cup of coffee at the station.

As with other cyber cafes, SurfNet provides access to the World Wide Web through a high-speed ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) connection, which is just below the T1 in speed. Interactive cyber games and e-mail access are popular attractions. And if you have your own Internet account, you can bring in a laptop, connect through SurfNet’s modem and work away, an attractive option if your home computer or online provider is in a snit.

What’s more, you can check out your Berkeley friend’s new hair style on your monitor, transmitted by way of a small camera mounted above a monitor at the other end. The cameras are hooked up to CUSee Me, a program that allows you and the person you’re chatting with to see each another.

Chat lines, where people ramble on and on with one another via the computer, are particularly popular, said LeCroy.

The search for the company of others, in reality or in cyberspace, appears to be the major draw of cyber cafes, whether the purpose is to socialize, browse anonymously or hang out with like-minded addicts.

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Some places go even further. At the Cyber House in Simi Valley, the owners created a business concept that incorporated their own interests and needs as well as those of their clientele. They ended up with a family-oriented high-tech cyber cafe.

“We have a close-knit family, said San Tewfik, co-owner. “With our youngest at 17, my wife and I were looking for a place to hang out. We couldn’t find one so we made our own.”

Tewfik is a native of Egypt, and with his other partners--his wife Phyllis from Michigan, Daniel Moyano from Argentina and Luis Lopez from Mexico--they are a multicultural bunch. All are computer programmers.

The cafe is sprawled over several storefronts. Some of the dining tables come equipped with computers and telephones while others are pre-wired for roll-up computers that connect to local area networks and the Internet.

Besides a full-service cafe serving beer and wine, along with a juice and coffee bar, there are technical enticements that include Virtual Reality, network games, Web pages and a computer learning center. Cost for Internet access is $4 an hour, with no minimum. For 15 minutes the cost is $1, and so on.

“We’re sectioning off a separate area for the kids because sometimes they get a little rowdy,” Tewfik said. Business used to shut down at midnight, until he noticed people seemed to just drift with no place to go. Then Tewfik extended the closing to 2 a.m.

“So there’s a safe place to hang out without getting into trouble,” he said, adding hopefully, “maybe then they’ll go home.”

In the initial planning stages, food was secondary to technology. But with the acquisition of a chef, meals moved up the ranks. You’d think the owners would worry about the dangerous mix of food, beverages and delicate keyboards, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

If there is a spill, Moyano said, “You just remove four screws, take off the top and blow it [the keyboard] dry.”

At one table, a couple browsed the Net while they waited for their food order. Someday soon, said the owners, they’ll be able to place their order right on the computer screen at the table and it will come up in the kitchen.

Membership cards, free of charge, give computer users their own log-on and password to the Cyber House network, along with 5 MB of disk space and a free e-mail box on the Internet. Classes are planned, and in addition to the cafe, there will soon be a separate section for sales and service of hardware and software for individuals and businesses.

Mostly, Tewfik wants a place where others want to hang out, too, remembering with fondness life in Egypt where friends socialized by getting together and talking. So what if it’s on a chat line now?

Going from maxi to mini, glitz to grunge, you can pick up an espresso at any number of smaller cafes up and down the coast, as well as in the Valley. Many of these are part of coin-operated networks accessed through CafeNet Online, where the computers are a small part of the overall cafe business.

Primarily darkly lit coffeehouses reminiscent of the beatnik era, these places offer an Internet experience at the drop of a quarter for three minutes or $5 an hour. You can surf the Net, get a personalized e-mail address or eat, drink and socialize from 7 a.m to midnight.

At Ground Zero in Burbank, Michelle is behind the food bar, the place devoid of customers, but it’s midmorning and there are hours to go before the food and beverage bar closes up.

“After five, when people get off work, they line up to use one of the computers,” she said. Some loosen up by playing cyber games, others might hit a chat line, do research, check the weather in Bombay, propose marriage to a stranger. Who knows?

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One certainty is that cyber cafes tend to come and go, some more quickly than others. It’s a tough business unless there are added incentives like tasty food and reliable equipment, preferably state-of-the-art. It also helps to have a knowledgeable technician handy.

This shift from the cocoon of the home computer to cyber cafes leaves one to question whether it’s just another trend. For those hungry for food and companionship while doing solitary surfing, it’s a place to go. So what if it is only virtual reality. At least at a cyber cafe, the other people sitting at other computers are real.

Besides, where else can you learn to cheat at computer solitaire or find out how to get back home when you’re lost in space?

To Find a Cyber Cafe

* SurfNet Cafe, Anacapa Business Center, 1445 Donlon St., #14, Ventura 93003. Steve LeCroy, co-owner, 658-1287; fax 642-2560; e-mail: Surfnetjetlink.net Web: www.surfnetcafe.com.

* Cyber House, 1407 E. Los Angeles Ave., Unit G, Simi Valley 93065. Sam Tewfik, co-owner, 581-6331; fax 581-6375; e-mail: Webmasteramsn.com Web: www.amsn.com.

* The Industry Cyber Cafe, 3191 Cahuenga Blvd., West Hollywood 90068. Matthew Barasch, owner, (213) 845-9998; fax (213) 845-1870; e-mail: industryearthlink.net.

* Virtual Cineplex at Media City Center, 201 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. (818) 566-8566. Dan Millman, general manager.

Others, Up and Down the Coast

* Cyber Java, 1029 Abbott Kinney Road, Venice. (310) 581-1300. Rom Agustin, owner.

* The World Cafe, 2820 Main St., Santa Monica. (310) 392-1661.

* Almost Paradise Cafe, Long Beach. (310) 429-2066.

* CyberState Cafe, 1224 State St., Santa Barbara. (805) 899-3723 Web site: www.cyber-state. com.

* The eCafe, 1219 State St., Santa Barbara. (805) 897-3335. Web site: www.ecafe1.com.

* Library Bar, 723 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. (805) 542-0199.