When The Refuge launched Common Grounds Cafe in August 2003, students were offered a cafe experience unsaturated by market values.
Fourteen years later, the Cafe still holds those same values, said manager Chris Schmidt. In previous years, Common Grounds Cafe offered its patrons coffee, tea, granitas and pastries, pro bono.
However, this semester, patrons are expected to contribute a small fee in exchange for their gourmet drinks.
“When we first started, the coffee was free, and that was just a ministry [to] the students of LSU,” Schmidt said. “As of the this semester, everything’s a dollar. It’s not to gain a ton of revenue for anything. We’re actually trying to make Common Grounds’ revenue neutral.”
Schmidt, who is the Cafe’s only paid employee — the 40 baristas, referred to as volunteers, only work two-hour shifts a week — insists Common Grounds Cafe is first and foremost a hangout spot.
“We want this space to be a third space … similar to like Starbucks or Highland Coffees where it’s an escape from the pressures of work the pressures of school, the pressures of home life,” Schmidt said.
Common Grounds Cafe opened on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. Within minutes, a motley crowd assembled at the cafe as if they had been lifelong patrons.
Biochemistry sophomore Eden McMillin sat perched in a chair, finishing off a vanilla latte as speakers faintly played Disney classics. Her work lay sprawled across a table.
“I go to the church that puts on Common Grounds,” McMillan said. “It’s like a really good community, and obviously a dollar coffee is really good.”
English senior Mary Liu, and her friend, sociology senior Emma Clements consider Common Grounds Cafe the “ultimate study haven.”
“We used to study here like every day last semester,” Clements said.
Though Common Grounds Cafe is an annex of the Refuge, Schmidt said all are welcome.
“Because there are so many people from different backgrounds…we can create an atmosphere here where all of those people can come and hangout,” Schmidt said. “We don’t consider this holy ground. We consider this our coffee shop.”
Common Grounds Cafe reopens after finishing renovations on Dalrymple Drive on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.
