The Corp’s most recent business endeavor, a caf? on the second floor of Lauinger Library, opened Tuesday to mild, librarian-approved fanfare. Midnight Mug brings the number of caf?s on this campus to four, if you count the Starbucks in Leavey.
If the number of caf?s per capita is an indicator of general pleasantness, it would seem that as a university, we are doing fairly well. But the hard data only gets you so far. If we’re getting a new caf?, we need to ask the tough questions. Does it feature a menu that runs the gamut of high-end snacks? Does it have trendy furniture? How about the lighting? Is the setting convenient? Or is it so picturesque that you’ll walk the whole way over there just to posture?
Fortunately, Midnight Mug comes through on all of these counts. Like Uncommon Grounds and its other derivative, the original daytime More Uncommon Grounds, Midnight Mug has your softball-sized yogurt-based muffins, it has your froufrou orange juice and it has your heavily caffeinated barista concoctions. No surprises there. Keeping with the library motif, someone seems to have let the English majors name all the drinks. No “Scarlet Lattes,” though.
But that’s all old hat as far as Corp cafes are concerned. The furnishings are where Midnight Mug shines. Attractively simple, modern wooden chairs predominate, but there is also a selection of upholstered seating options. The couches aren’t big and overstuffed like the ones in UG, but there are more of them; same goes for the chairs. Whether or not the slimmer couches mean that you will be less likely to find unidentified students passed out facedown in their cushions is still up in the air. One could argue that the average library aficionado is more academically oriented than the Leavey Center’s devotees. One could also argue that where there are couches to be found, students will sleep facedown on them. Either way, they’re nice couches. Completing the ambiance, the counters are sleek, the lights are those ubiquitous caf? halogens and the stereo is restricted to calmly asserting its presence.
As far as convenience, well, it’s in the library. If you know where that is, go to the second floor and walk straight across the lounge area to the back of the room. The most important question, though, is this: Can you look cool there? While Lauinger may be notoriously ugly, it’s not that much worse than Leavey. Besides, once you get inside, it all looks the same. The nighttime view of the Rosslyn skyline is pretty sexy, and the place is open ‘till two. Midnight Mug employee Lauren Moynihan (CAS ‘03) was optimistic. “Can you posture? I say do what you wanna do,” she said. “It’s hard to tell, because we’ve only been open 12 hours.” Do library administrators come by to strike a pose? “No comment.”
