Peter B’s Espresso and a Underground Coffeehouse, dual renouned coffee houses on Trinity’s campus, supply caffeine and particular village spaces for students to gather. Although they are only opposite a Gates Quad from any other—the Underground is on a reduce turn of Mather Hall, nearby The Cave and a bookstore, while Peter B’s is on a belligerent building of a Raether Library and Information Technology Center (LITC)—both cafés see copiousness of daily feet traffic. Each one has a possess singular interest and history. “I consider of Peter B’s as a workspace and a Underground as a socializing space to relax,” pronounced Peter B’s barista Amber Montalvo ’20.
Peter B’s Espresso
Peter B’s began in 1988 as a coffee transport owned by Peter Brainard Jr. ’88, a namesake of a café now owned by his brother, Newton. In a early 1990s, years before a attainment of Starbucks to Connecticut, Brainard non-stop several shops, including a Trinity College plcae in a campus bookstore, afterwards in Halden Hall. Peter B’s after changed to a stream plcae in a Rather Library and Information Technology Center, where it continues to offer some-more than 30 years of students, staff, faculty, and visitors.
Tastes have changed—a 1997 Trinity Tripod article records cappuccino as a many renouned drink, since stream tastes are for double-brewed iced coffee, year-round, according to manager René Dion—but a café’s purpose as a centralized heart of activity has remained. In further to prohibited and cold drinks, Peter B’s serves creatively done baked products like a ever-popular pumpkin bread, that a café serves all year. Keeping with a times, a accumulation of non-dairy milks are available, and a café is aware of a campus’s sustainability initiatives. Peter B’s offers a bring-your-own-mug bonus as good as washable mugs for visitors staying in a café area. The cosmetic lids and paper sleeves on a to-go cups are recyclable, and giveaway coffee drift are accessible to anyone who wishes to take them for compost.
The café is staffed by students who learn a art of pulling espresso and bubbling milk. Dion pronounced she enjoys saying her employees grow, change, and make friends by a years, as many work during a café via their college experience. There is a clarity of village among Peter B’s staff. Kaelie Murray Simmons ’20 started during a café as a first-year tyro and now serves as a tyro manager, overseeing and training new employees. “I adore Peter B’s as a community. Working here is a good approach to make new friends, generally as a first-year,” she said.
Still in a Biz: Notable Peter B’s alumni
- Isaac Weiner ’12, owners of Familiars Coffee and Tea in Northampton, Massachusetts
- Kelly Vaughan ’17, associate digital food editor during Martha Stewart Living
Peter B’s Espresso Hours (as of Dec 2019)
- Monday–Thursday: 7:30 a.m.–midnight
- Friday: 7:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
- Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
- Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–midnight
The Underground Coffeehouse
The story of a Underground Coffeehouse is cloudier than Peter B’s, maybe since it gradually came into being as an wholly student-run venture, flourishing someday in a mid-1980s and flourishing into a welcoming, friendly café that exists today. The Underground is dictated for socializing, with soothing lighting that brightens a subterranean space sprinkled with comfy couches and ornate with tyro art. In further to a common coffee and espresso drinks, a Underground serves renouned creations like a “Milky Way” coffee splash and a Sanpellegrino-based “Berry Sunrise.” The café is still student-run, with 3 tyro managers overseeing everything—events, personnel, inventory, and budget. They safeguard a space stays confident and follows a goal to offer a welcoming and thorough atmosphere. Graduating managers select a new managers for a following year.
Like Peter B’s, a Underground is attuned to a college’s sustainability efforts; it serves free-trade Omar coffee and composts a coffee grounds. It also offers bring-your-own-mug discounts and promotes a use of in-house, washable mugs. The staff members recycle all they can in a college’s single-stream recycling program.
The Underground’s clarity of village is critical to a space’s managers and baristas. Events manager Emma Schneck ’20 oversees a Underground’s events, that embody contention groups, tyro presentations, and performances, with a special concentration on multiculturalism. “All of us are concerned in creation a space a own,” pronounced barista Cristina Aldeanueva ’22, whose design decorates a space.
Since a Underground is not in a LITC (like Peter B’s), a café can horde louder events, like live music. In fact, a Underground was a hearth of a annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival. Although a festival has outgrown a tiny café space, a Underground still hosts pre-festival formulation meetings and listening parties, and it now hosts a festival’s registration list on a day of a event.
Still in a Biz: Notable Underground alumni
- Michael Acosta ’13, owners of Story and Soil Coffee Co. in Hartford
Underground Coffeehouse Hours (as of Dec 2019)
- Monday–Thursday: 8:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
- Friday: 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
- Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
- Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.