A Flat Space To Write: Peet's Coffee
Steve Beisner -- October 12, 2008
Another in our infrequent series on places for writers to write. Here we take a second look at the Peet's Coffee phenomenon. Coffee and Writing go together like plot and character. For many writers they're inseparable. You can always brew it at home, but as an antidote to solitude, there's nothing quite like a coffee house. But how does one café become an essential meeting spot, while another place with good coffee get few customers?
Peet's Coffee at the corner of State Street and LaCumbre Road in Santa Barbara is a puzzle. It's got a lot of things not going for it, yet it is a fixture among local writers. This is actually Ink Byte's second look at Peet's. It was mentioned previously in this article by Shelly Lowenkopf.
Our reviews of coffee houses are generally from the perspective of how they rate as places to work. Peet's is an anomoly: it has a number of serious problems as a destination for working writers, yet it remains enormously popular. How can this be?
Peet's is a regional chain. The first store opened in Berkeley, California in 1966, before the 1971 opening of the first Starbucks. The folklore is that the three Starbucks founders got their idea from their experience with the Berkeley Peet's. During their first year of business Starbucks actually bought their coffee from Peet's. While Starbucks grew into a behemoth, Peet's has remained focused on one thing: a good cup of coffee.
A morning visit to the Santa Barbara Peet's will leave little doubt that the store is a success: the line is long, the conversations sometimes rise into a roar, and the cash registers hum... or whatever cash registers do these computerized days. So how does this successful franchise do it?
Seating
Everyone knows that real estate is precious on the South Coast.
Apparently, Peet's is a victim of the scarcity of square footage.
I don't know what Peet's official policy is, but it sometimes
appears that they're trying to support just enough seating that
their customers won't abandon them. Then there is the "musical
chairs" approach to store layout. The number and arrangement of
chairs, tables, condiment counter, shelves, etc. changes more
often than the daily special display at Wal-Mart. So far I
haven't caught them rearranging the chairs while they were
occupied, but it could happen.
Ambience
It's pretty good for a meeting, and lots of people can be seen
on work-day mornings engaged in business conversations. One also
can spot someone with a laptop (see comments below on Internet).
There are a number of Santa Barbara writers who show up regularly
for caffeine and conversation as well. That said, the surroundings
are not the laid-back fall-asleep-in-the-overstuffed-chair sort
of place featured by many Santa Barbara coffee houses.
Food
Not so good. There's an adequate selection of pastries, but you'd
better like them "as-is" -- there's no toaster or microwave. You'll have to
saw your bagel in half with a dull plastic "knife", and there's no
jam, either. A certain well-known sports journalist regularly sneaks
his bagel into Peet's from Jack's, across the street.
Baristas
Very competent. They have good equipment and they know how to use
it. Many of the Peet's employees have been there a long time, and
customers and baristas know each other by first name.
Internet Connectivity
OK... I'm sort of a nut on this. For a long time Peet's had no
Wifi, unless one hopped onto the LAN belonging to one of the nearby
businesses. Recently, a "Free Wifi" sign has appeared on the Peet's door.
But you have to ask for a 2 hour daily pass code when
you buy your coffee.
Wifi costs very little. The coffee shops that "get it"
provide unlimited connectivity for nothing and their customers
love them for it. In my experience store managers' fears of the all day
free-loader are almost always unreasonable paranoia. Oh well.
Customers
Your normal cross section of caffeine addicts from every conceivable walk
of life: business people, salesmen, engineers and other techies, bible
readers, homeless intellectuals, teachers, and writers. Lots of
writers... I don't know why.
Actually, I rarely see a writer writing at Peet's, but there are a lot
of literary conversations and frequent heads-together consultations over
not-yet-completed manuscripts.
It's a pretty good spot to strike up
a conversation with a stranger. People meet and become friends at Peet's.
Coffee
The best. At least that's what Peet-niks say. I won't argue: it is
very good. Very dark. Very strong. Very caffeinated. And yes,
there are some people for whom it is a little over the top.
The coffee is my pick for the number one reason that Peet's is a hit with local
writers... that and the self-perpetuating fact that you're likely to
run into other writers while you're there.
The Santa Barbara Peet's is not for everyone, but it's unique. If you like coffee and you haven't tried it, you might want to drop in some weekday morning. See you at Peets.