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Daniel StraitApril 2013

Of Democracy and Luxury: an observation of Blacksburg coffeehouses

Abstract:

Within Blacksburg, Virginia’s socio-cultural landscape and the singular coffeehouse typology, Bollo’s Café &

Bakery and Starbucks each fulfill a unique social role: one of democracy and the other of luxury. Historically,

Starbucks has clearly stated ties to the Italian tradition of espresso, while more subconsciously, Bollo’s largely

aligns with the democratic ideals of early London coffeehouses. Reflecting these associations, the design of

the espresso bar both spatially and materially shapes the social attitudes and interactions within these shops.

Starbucks emphasizes the production of every espresso drink, elevating it as a masterful art to be celebrated,

while Bollo’s views coffee as a social lubricant able to create a particular egalitarian atmosphere. Spatially,

Bollo’s relies upon a dense friction of proximity to promote a sense of social equality, while Starbucks’s open-

ness reflects a high respect for and focus on the performance of the barista. Facets down to the very price of

the coffee begin to reveal two rather different visions and manifestations of the role of the coffeehouse within

modern day society. Their connection to Blacksburg historically, physically, and materially shapes their indi-

vidual social roles in the community, and also displays their vision of how historical roots meet a local place.

Studies of historical literature, observations of physical detail, and interviews with local owners form the

basis for this analysis.

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Of Democracy and Luxury: an observation of Blacksburg coffeehouses

The comparison of coffeehouses is endlessly frustrating. Though in today’s lexicon, Blacksburg busi-

nesses, Starbucks and Bollo’s Café and Bakery, fall under the same umbrella title coffeehouse, an appropriate

assessment must lie in observed objective qualities. Both are complex organisms understood in relation

to the study of their parts; and at the end of the day, the debate of a better coffeehouse is an expression of

individual preference. Within the context of Blacksburg, Virginia, Bollo’s, a locally owned and operated shop,

hints back to values of the democratic London coffeehouse, while Starbucks, an international corporation,

finds its roots in the Italian café typology of luxury and elegance. While sating a similar physical need in the

community – that for coffee – through conscious or subconscious ties to historical models expressed physi-

cally and socially, both coffeehouses fulfill different social needs and achieve distinctive visions within the

Blacksburg community.

Both Bollo’s and Starbucks have strong roots in European coffee culture, and it is this heritage and

inspiration that enlivens their relation to today’s community. Beginning in the mid seventeenth century and

enduring a good ways into the nineteenth, the coffeehouse played a prominent role in redefining the socio-

cultural environment of Great Britain. The first coffeehouses sprang up in Oxford under the wing of the

university, offering for the first time a social setting outside the home and an educational setting outside the

university structure.1 These establishments received some criticism for their comparative brashness and

informality, yet it was this proximity to the “virtuosi” of Oxford and Cambridge that established a social stage

for the scholars and wits rather than the plebes and scoundrels of preexisting alehouses.2 The seed of the

coffeehouse quickly spread, and it was in the streets of London where the idea was cultivated and most widely

enjoyed.

Under a stifling structure of social hierarchy and formality, men flocked to coffeehouses to enjoy a

new democracy of interaction purposefully crafted by entrepreneurs of the day. Common codes of behav-

ior were written and posted in shops across London, each allowing a new social freedom for people “whom

tradition had suspended in their respective places”.3 This leveling stressed an inclusiveness of rank such that

within these doors, the baron could rub shoulders with the common worker while sharing ideas, political

views, and a love of coffee. For the price of a penny and with a cup of coffee as their ticket stub, men gained

admittance to an intellectual arena of politics, business, and theology. Thus for two hundred years until ap-

proximately 1850, these “Penny Universities,”4 as they were often called, defined an unprecedented social and

intellectual revival stemming from the “friction of free association.”5

On the other side of Europe, the Italians, though being among the first to import coffee beans from

Arabia, did not establish what now defines their café culture until 1901 when a Milanese, Luigi Bezzera, in-

vented the first espresso machine.6 Contrary to its current grandeur, this appliance was initially thought of as

a way to simplify and hasten the process of making coffee by quickly and mechanically pressing water through

a condensed cake of coffee grounds. As the process developed throughout the mid-twentieth century, new

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complicated machines produced increasingly higher-quality espresso widening the gap between out-of-home

and in-home coffee. Thus as an artist of sorts, the barista held a skilled and respected position within society

as he produced a beverage highly desirable in Italy’s social landscape. When the government began control-

ling the maximum price for “base” products, a standing bar culture developed for patrons who wanted to

avoid cafes’ table-service charges.7 And thus the social interaction conducted across an espresso machine was

born.

Where the British coffeehouses thrived on ideas of democracy and free social interaction, the Italian

cafes largely developed around their espresso – a standard of quality, skill, and grace. Thus in imitation, Star-

bucks president and CEO, Howard Schultz, wrote to his partners, “Let’s measure our actions by that perfect

shot of espresso.”8

In the same way Schultz establishes a framework of measurement for his business, the coffeehouse as

a whole must be assessed, not one-dimensionally, but in light of its interconnected and individual members.

The first, and arguably most prominent member (if only in regards to sheer mass,) is the espresso bar. Within

Starbucks, the entrance exalts it. From the first step in the door, a direct line of sight leads customers towards

the bar with a funneling of product displays, while this path is also subtly expressed materially in the floor

tiling. As to the bar, the rise and fall of countertop levels begins to dictate a prescribed interaction between

the barista and his customer – a relationship essential to the underpinnings and success of the coffeehouse.

Acting in the same way as Italian neighborhood baristas, Starbucks “partners”9 begin to function as local fig-

ures of information, news, and gossip. On one hand, this community-fostering interaction is largely influenced

by the personality and charisma of the barista, yet the espresso bar remains essential in allowing the barista

full expression as he interacts and relates to the client at both personal and professional levels. The path

from the entrance intersects concisely with a dip in the bar height, where the first barista/customer interac-

tion is scripted to take place. A lowering at this point not only indicates an initial target to the customer and

guest, but also reveals a fuller picture of the barista’s body language as he greets and converses with whom-

ever might come into the shop. Following the dip, the countertop rises again to hide the base of the espresso

Starbucks, entrance 34Starbucks, South Main Street 33

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machine peeking over top capped with a cylindrical dispenser of coffee beans. The process, though sped to

facilitate productivity, is entirely one where showmanship takes primary importance. From the perspective of

the customer, the espresso bar seductively hides the motions of the barista as he pulls the shot of rich brown

espresso, steams the milk, and finally carefully combines the ingredients in a cup designed for a showman’s

simplicity. The process comes to a close at another carved opening where a wooden countertop proudly

displays the coffee creation to the eager customer. Sitting on this pedestal, the white cup perfectly accentu-

ates the now milky beige of the espresso drink. This offering at a lower vantage point puts the artful foam

or delicate caramel marking under the nose of the customer, and it is also at this point that the ceiling drops

with a wooden accent and twisting metal sculpture reminiscent of the coffee stirring. Two lights hang directly

above, acting as spotlights on the final product – a masterful creation. The bar ceases to be a mere mediator

of client relations, but now is momentarily transformed into a stage where the barista displays the mastery of

his art. Though the show may seem extravagant, it exposes an understanding that the espresso in itself holds

value to the barista (and corporation) who deems it worthy of sharing with the world.

On a small corner lot of Draper Road, Bollo’s Café and Bakery draws upon quite different historical fa-

miliarities, and ergo attracts a slightly different microcosm of the Blacksburg population. Almost directly con-

trary to the warm woods of the Starbucks espresso bar, a granite surface sits atop the bar in Bollo’s, reminis-

cent of home-style countertops. In an L-shape, the coffee bar displays baked goods to entering customers on

one side, while opening to the interior of the shop for ordering and receiving coffee. This initial presentation

of baked goods reflects a given value to making things from scratch.10 There is no extravagant assembly line,

and the interactions between barista and client are confined to one surface. As the barista takes a request for

an espresso, he must turn his back on his guest to prepare the drink, not conveying any disrespect but indicat-

ing an attitude of equality. The barista’s actions are open to be watched and inspected by whoever is in the

shop – there is no magic to what he is preparing. Where this lacks a flair that Starbuck’s strives so eagerly for,

it reflects a different value: democracy. Coffee is the drink of everybody, anybody… even the layman. From

its establishment in 1994, Ranae Gillie, the owner and founder of Bollo’s, has maintained a vision of a coffee-

Bollo’s Cafe & Bakery, Draper Avenue 35 Bollos, entrance 36

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house where “everyone from every walk of life can feel comfortable.”11 Even the brewed coffee has been ex-

pelled from behind the bar, and now finds its place amongst the guests to be self-served in simple white mugs.

People are trusted above all, for they are not as much customers as they are fellow townsmen and peers.

Sixteen small tables are squeezed within Bollo’s small corner shop only to be accompanied by twenty-

two seats and three large church pews. With this sort of density, even from one table to the next, conversation

is easy and therefore flows freely amongst friends and strangers alike. Just as a baron might sit down next to

and converse with the everyday workers in London coffeehouses,12 Bollo’s encourages, and pushes, people of

any social station to incidentally interact with each other as a collateral of immediate proximity. Looking back

on London’s crippling social hierarchies,13 one might admire how far society has progressed; yet, while pos-

sibly better concealed, Blacksburg has engrained within its culture that same hierarchical monster. As in the

early eighteenth century London coffeehouses, the goal behind the spatial order of Bollo’s reflects a desire for

“the social fiction of equal status betweens patrons.”14 The furniture is reflective of this as well; church pews

and common metal chairs exude a humility of design that would make anyone feel at ease, whatever his per-

ceived social position. There is no pecking order within table selection, for most seats are quite similar (bar-

ring the occasional wobbly table or preference for a window seat). Welcoming any of the “colorful clientele”

who come through her door, Ranae Gillie cites her egalitarianism stemming from an admittedly 1960’s mantra

of “we are all the same.”15 As London coffeehouses avoided reserved seating for the elite,16 with the shop

layout and furniture selection, Bollo’s cleverly shirks a pecking order within Blacksburg’s social hierarchies of

students and professors, of haves and the have-less.

Another proponent of democracy within Bollo’s Café and Bakery, is the exposed design aesthetic.

Wires hang visibly, snaking to and from the hanging light fixtures, and there is no clean matte of ceiling tiles

attempting to conceal the metal beams overhead. Water pipes and descending sprinkler heads flow and

intersect to form a chaotic grid overhead; yet, there is an honesty to be found here. The design functions as an

expressed non-factor. Though some might call it a lowest common denominator, the lack of elaborate wooden

accents or rich color schemes cause the particular design decisions and selections to fade into the subcon-

scious. It is merely a backdrop for a much richer and more vibrant human discourse.

Although Starbucks possesses a larger floor area, there is a valued spaciousness to their design – a

clutter of tables cannot detract from the magic being presented behind the espresso bar. Five tables, fourteen

seats, and a long seating bar suffice for a much greater consumer need, but this is appropriate. For looking

to its roots in Italian cafés, Italians were more prone to take their espresso standing, not wanting to pay for

table service. Though Starbucks has not the bar space for customers to stand while enjoying a quick shot of

espresso, they have marketed and emphasized their products “to-go.” Orders are always prepared in paper

cups, which, in a way, encourages a similar transient flow of community as those cafes of historic Italy. For

those who do stay, the layout seems more appropriately suited for a quiet tryst rather than a loud, impas-

sioned group conversation. The furniture elicits ideas of a higher class as wooden chairs encircle delicate

metal tables. In one corner, an arrangement of plush leather armchairs offers a more comfortable seating

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option for relaxing over coffee and conversation. Emphasizing the elegant décor, a color scheme of rich greens

and warm yellows creates an oasis of interior lavishness within the typical Blacksburg material palette of

traditional masonry and stone.

An element, seemingly small, but imperative to the atmosphere and life of Bollo’s Café and Bakery,

is the price of its house mug of coffee: $1.50, refill included. Nowhere else in Blacksburg offers such a price.

Though every day, they make less than their competitors on the sale of their standard brewed coffee, students

and locals of the community have embraced them for it. This harkens back to the ideals of London’s “Penny

Universities” where a small sum of money became an entrance fee into a much larger scene of lives shared,

ideas discussed, and community built… cup by cup. As with the coffeehouses developing alongside Oxford

and Cambridge,17 Bollo’s provides an informal education of sorts taken on one’s own terms and for quite a dif-

ferent sort of tuition. With its ever-transitory populace of Virginia Tech students, academia has now become

permanently entwined into the fabric of the town, and it is within this framework that Bollo’s has developed

and adapted. The students it attracts are generally those with a shared lust and respect for knowledge; and

thus, this modern day Penny University provides them a venue. This is an arena for processing knowledge,

and it is here that ideas begin to take a foothold in the realities of life. A higher premium would automati-

cally discourage many from partaking, and above all Gillie would rather see her coffeehouse as a center of life

within the town of Blacksburg before a shrewd financial generator.18 Bollo’s character, defined in the $1.50

mug of coffee, is an appropriate analysis of place, allowed by a freedom that comes with independent and

local ownership. Prices are not handed down from a national level; they are measured and scaled to fit the

people who frequent Bollo’s on a daily basis. The very cup of coffee is a personal invitation to Blacksburg– for

in a way this is their shop. Ranae Gillie refers to the low price of quality coffee as a hook to encourage “return

people,” who in turn generate a vibrant and supportive community with the walls of this coffeehouse.19 Small

town families and university student demographics have generally not been ones of high means, therefore a

cup of coffee that caters to their life position has an often under-appreciated value, yet one essential to build-

ing strong and lasting ties within a local population.

The cup of coffee is the mere beginning of Bollo’s acknowledgement of its place. This recognition is

one of both populace and physicality. Taking the populace first, Bollo’s Café and Bakery is a place for and by

the people. Rather than an impressive uniform or distinctly colored smock, the baristas don everyday outfits

in a resounding statement of egalitarianism. Bollo’s sees their local ownership as something to be celebrated

and emphasized as they go about serving the local population. Gillie envisions her coffeehouse as a place

where “everyone from every walk of life can feel comfortable.”20 With every design and management decision,

she makes judgments as to who Bollo’s is trying to attract. The board games stacked in the rear of the shop

invite families to bring children who might not be able to sit still while their parents enjoy a long conversation

over coffee. The games also tend to draw adventurous, or simply bored, students to engage with each other in

a way redolent of childhood memories. Available newspapers, along with the board games, not only provide

an exciting and unconventional outlet, but moreover suggest an encouragement to stay. Sit amongst good

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company, enjoy a board game or the newspaper, and sip the coffee slowly. The local newspaper played a key

role in eighteenth century London, when the literate amidst the community would read aloud the day’s news

to other patrons of the coffeehouse.21 Bollo’s is not selling coffee to just anyone; they are specifically catering

to and serving the people of Blacksburg.

Though they exist within the same community, Starbucks has a rather dissimilar approach to the

attraction of customers. They are above all selling an experience and a product. Schultz cites the merchant’s

success as dependent “on his or her ability to tell a story,”22 and thus the Starbucks Experience was born. Dur-

ing his travels in Milan, Schultz fell deeply in love with the idea of the Italian café, and from that point on, this

image of the Italian café and the magic of the espresso have been his story and his passion.23 His vision cen-

tered on “a sense that, over a demitasse of espresso, life slowed down.”24 And thus via Starbucks, he has been

convincing others of the magic he has seen. With every design element, every barista interaction, and above

all, every espresso sold, Starbucks is telling a story of richness and grandeur inherent to the Italian espresso

culture. While Bollo’s may create a refuge of democracy within the diverse Blacksburg community, Starbucks

has the large-scale ambition of selling luxury to the aspiring among society. To be holding that clean white

cup printed with the green twin-tailed mermaid is to be associated with an icon – and an icon highly symbolic

of a vision. Drinks can be customized to fit the particular tastes and whims of the consumer, yet they all strive

towards a perfection that Schultz was first introduced to in Milan. The prices of these espresso creations re-

flect the vision as much as anything else: high price for a high quality. There are no daily specials or coupons,

for there can be no compromise on the perception of excellence. Instead of retrofitting the menu and prices

to the local Blacksburg population, Starbucks invites the local people into a preexisting image of society,

sophistication, and luxury. Rather than a grassroots effort, it is a top down approach to how coffee should be

served and enjoyed: a methodology either stifling or uplifting depending on how one views the product sold.

Starbucks offers something entirely intangible in every cup of coffee, but many have cited it as an “affordable

luxury.”25 The university setting, with its attitudes towards planning for a future, more than fosters this sense

of social striving that Starbucks feeds off.

Aside from the population, both coffeehouses have a certain respect and recognition of place – the

town of Blacksburg. Bollo’s is located directly outside the original sixteen squares first established in 1798

by William Black;26 and although the shop does not lie within this grid, it finds itself at the joint between the

sixteen squares and the addition of the university. Bollo’s first began within the framework of Gillie’s Veg-

etarian Cuisine, until in 1994, they expanded to their current corner lot down the block.27 This site allows

the coffeehouse to participate in the history of Blacksburg with its concave entrance corner, which provides

an overhang shielding both its own entrance but also the public sidewalk where a bench has been offered for

outdoor seating. The protruding corner above the door establishes a link to the foundational buildings along

Main Street, which characteristically replace the corner condition with exposed columns to “pay homage to

their respective intersections.” 28 As Donna Dunay observes in her book on Town Architecture, these sidewalk

niches have become “an archetype for Blacksburg,” which create “a rhythm and scale attuned to that of the

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pedestrian.”29 Materially it highlights its relation to the proximate building with an exposed brick wall on its

interior northern face. The stripping away of the typical drywall and paint both acknowledges its haphazard

connection to the building next door and accentuates a local material of the town. This detail not only pulls

in the shop’s exterior, but also associates it with a large majority of the local heritage buildings in Blacksburg,

which are of masonry construction.30 Just as Bollo’s endeavors to tie itself to the very people of the town, its

architecture reflects similar values of local connection and place.

Within the town context, Starbucks is located inside the original 16 squares and specifically along

Main Street – a defining avenue of Blacksburg culture; and while the storefront acknowledges this relation,

it treats it as it would a thriving promenade, akin to the Italian pedestrian street. This stretch of Main Street

sees no such pedestrian activity, but nonetheless the exaltation exists. This relationship seems typical of a

large-scale attempt to introduce a desirable situation without acknowledging the local patterns and move-

ments. Starbucks’s introduction to the town is primarily one of a customer base. Though the interior of the

shop is largely individual-oriented, it would seem that physically Starbucks overlooks particular town charac-

ter as its primary existence remains on the national and international scene.

In the title coffeehouse, language comes up short. Practically speaking, it holds true that both Star-

bucks and Bollo’s sell coffee, yet two establishments more fundamentally different would be hard to find

which suffer from a similar misunderstanding of purpose. In name, the product is the same, but upon closer

inspection, what they are truly offering could not be more dissimilar. Starbucks sells luxury to the aspiring

among society; Bollo’s sells a refuge of democracy within the diverse Blacksburg community. Starbucks has

clearly stated ties to the Italian tradition of espresso, while more subconsciously, Bollo’s largely aligns with

the democratic ideals of early London coffeehouses. The people who are to be found in Bollo’s are not the

same who frequent Starbucks; for each group is seeking something entirely different, whether cognizant

of it or not. At the core of Starbuck’s philosophy remains the goal of “sourcing, roasting, and serving the

highest-quality coffee.”31 Ranae Gillie’s vision for Bollo’s includes primarily a purity of ingredients, but also

an atmosphere where everyone can feel safe and be treated as family.32 And thus while both shops draw from

the same pool of potential customers, it is their fundamental differences that allow them to exist side by side.

Drawing upon a singular desire for coffee, each fulfills a vastly unique social need within Blacksburg’s socio-

cultural landscape.

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Notes:

1. Cowan, Brian. The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British

Coffeehouse. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.) 89-90. 2. Cowan 104-105. 3. Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place. (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1999.) 186.4. Oldenburg 185.5. Oldenburg 186.6. Trieste, Antorami. “A Short History of Espresso in Italy and the World.” Trans. Jonathan Morris. 100% Espresso Italiano. Maurizo Cociancich, (2008.) 7. Trieste.8. Schultz, Howard. Onward. (New York: Rodale, 2011.) 6.9. Schultz 15.10. Gillie, Ranae. Personal interview. (26 Mar. 2013.) 11. Gillie12. Oldenburg 186. 13. Cowan 102.14. Cowan 104.15. Gillie.16. Oldenburg 186.17. Cowan 90.18. Gillie.19. Gillie.20. Gillie.21. Cowan 87.22. Schultz 34.23. Schultz 10.24. Schultz 10.25. Schultz 13.26. Dunay, Donna. Blacksburg. (Washington: Penn, 1986.) 93. 27. Gillie.28. Dunay 16.29. Dunay 27.30. Dunay 38.31. Schultz 315.32. Gillie.33. Strait, Daniel. Starbucks, South Main Street. 34. Strait, Daniel. Starbucks, entrance.35. Strait, Daniel. Bollo’s Cafe & Bakery, Draper Avenue.36. Strait, Daniel. Bollo’s, entrance.

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Consulted sources:

Bollo’s Cafe & Bakery, Draper Avenue. Personal Photograph by Daniel Strait. 10 April 2013.

Bollo’s, entrance. Personal Photograph by Daniel Strait. 10 April 2013.

Cowan, Brian. The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. Print.

Dunay, Donna. Blacksburg. Washington: Penn, 1986. Print.

Gillie, Ranae. Personal interview. 26 Mar. 2013.

Hattestein, Markus. “Coffee Houses.” Coffee Time: Contemporary Cafés. 1. Ed. Michelle Galindo. Frankfurt: Braun, 2012. 7-15. Print.

Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1999. Print.

Schultz, Howard. Onward. New York: Rodale, 2011. Print.

Starbucks, South Main Street. Personal Photograph by Daniel Strait. 10 April 2013.

Starbucks, entrance. Personal Photograph by Daniel Strait. 10 April 2013.

Trieste, Antorami. “A Short History of Espresso in Italy and the World.” Trans. Jonathan Morris. 100% Espresso Italiano. Maurizo Cociancich, 2008. Electronic.

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