BUSINESS PLAN (CAFÉ BUSINESS PLAN) THE RUSSET CUP 13351 MISSION STREET (OVERLAND PARK, KS) (DATE

Focusing primarily on Eugene, Oregon, I have created an overview via participant observation of how people use the communal space within a coffeehouse and I use the historic position of coffeehouses in London, England as a basis for comparison. How did people use the space of a coffeehouse in the 17th and 18th centuries in London, and how does that compare to how people use this “third place” (neither home nor work) in Eugene, Oregon today? This project also explores the evolution of coffee culture in the United States, particularly Starbucks, and how coffee has become both gourmet and a cultural commodity in the present-day.. Extensive research was done on coffeehouses in London spanning three centuries (from the mid-1500s onward). Research in Eugene was completed via participant observation, where I went to several local cafés and spent hours observing how people interacted within them. The outcome of this research shows that people make an effort to privatize space while they are in public, communal areas. With the backdrop of historic London’s coffeehouses, I compare the two environments and have found differences in the social function of cafés. This body of work has value because coffeehouses are a dominant “third space” in the world today, and how we use them and interact within them is an important facet of our cultural environment.