For the beans
>>Student-run coffee shop opens on 57th Street.

It's Friday night on 57th Street. There's the usual wait for a table at the Medici, and browsers glimpsed through the windows of 57th Street Books pick their way quietly among the front-table stacks. Next door to the Med, a new place casts a yellow glow on the sidewalk. "Stay Up Forever," a chalkboard enjoins passers-by, and, judging from the coffee cups steaming on the full tables inside, a good number of students might consider doing just that.

Open since September, the new café-actually named Stay Up Forever (SUF)-is the brainchild of Carver Tate, '02, an anthropology concentrator from New York City.

"I got the idea my first year," says Tate, whose father was the main investor in SUF, "because there was nowhere to study, other than libraries, or hang out late at night." Tate worked on preparing the space all of last year, originally intending to name it Café Arabica. But "Stay Up Forever," he says, better conveys the "theme" of the café. Open during all but the wee-est hours of the night, with coffee brewing from 6:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Sunday, SUF offers its patrons a full menu of espresso and coffee drinks, pastries, sandwiches, and "nicotine." It also features entertainment throughout the week. Programs include nightly broadcasts of The Simpsons on a giant projection screen and DJ nights. On the walls this fall is an exhibition of photographs of Paris by Kristin Miller, '01.

Like all good cafés nowadays, SUF will soon offer high-speed Internet access, and several students already bring their laptops to work while they sip their lattés and nibble biscotti. Others play chess on boards provided by the café.

"I come fairly often," says Michael Waggaman, '01. "I'm here more often then I thought I'd be, let's put it that way. The coffee's cheaper than at the C-Shop. My roommate plays chess here, and I come to watch and do homework." Behind the counter is a mix of U of C students, students from other colleges, and Hyde Park residents. Tate says it's too soon to report on SUF's financial success, but the difficulty in finding an empty table on a weekend night seems to speak for itself. - S.A.S.