Bucks County Coffee shop ready to open near campus

Students starving for a coffee fix can feed their caffeine addictions just off campus at the new Bucks County Coffee shop. The store, located at 34th and Sansom streets, replaces the space formerly occupied by Beanie's Coffee House, which closed down last spring. Bucks County Coffee President Rodger Owen said he hopes the franchise will open up by the end of next week. "We are hoping to open up the 20th or 21st of October, but the way things usually go, it will probably be a few days late," he said. He added that the only thing left to do is install equipment in the store and pass inspections. Owen said the coffee house will have four different varieties of coffee available every day, as well as espresso-based drinks such as cappuccino and latte. It will also sell cold drinks, including Bucks County Coffee's very own creation, the "mocha crush." Owen described the "mocha crush" as having "a good kick of caffeine and its own distinct coffee flavor in a milk shake consistency." In addition to drinks, a wide variety of food will also be served at the coffee house. Breakfast pastries, luncheon sandwiches, afternoon goodies like brownies and cookies and late evening desserts such as chocolate cheesecake and chocolate mousse pie will be available at all times of the day, he said. Bucks County will also sell 30 different varieties of coffee in whole bean form. The store will have special hours to cater to students -- it will be open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, he said. Owens said he decided to open up the franchise on Sansom Street because the company wanted to have a presence around campus. "We think that coffee and the campus community go together," he said. "And it was an opportunity to locate on Sansom Street, which we think is a marvelous location." The Bucks County Coffee chain has 27 other locations across the country, including one at 30th Street Station. There is also a store by Princeton University, which Owen said "has been very well received." Owen said he is looking forward to being a part of the University community. The company hopes it will be able to open a larger store on campus as well, he added. Associate Vice Provost of University Life Larry Moneta said this is a good start. "Penn is a campus of 24,000 people, and for that many people, you are talking about a lot of need for places like this to support them," he said. Moneta added that there are not enough places on or near campus for students to gather. "I think places for people to interact and talk to other people in a variety of other settings are important," he said. Moneta said he would like to see more businesses like Bucks County Coffee open up in the West Philadelphia area. They could serve graduate students, the high rise community, fraternity house residents and undergraduates living off campus, he added. "I think that Penn is hang-out deficient," Moneta said. According to Executive Director of the Christian Association Reverend Beverly Dale, the University has the opportunity to open a coffee shop right on Locust Walk. She said the Board of the Christian Association approached the University two years ago with an offer to sell the University a portion of its building to use as a coffee house. She added that both the Board and the University are interested in raising the quality of student life on campus. "The Board has offered to sell the property to the University, but the University has not expressed interest," she said. University Treasurer Scott Lederman said his department discussed the opportunity with the Christian Association, but could not come to an agreement. "We did talk some numbers which they did not find satisfactory, so the discussions ended," he said. He added that the prospect of purchasing the building comes up periodically in discussions because it is a centrally located facility. "At the right price we would be interested, but there is no active interest in it at the moment," he said. Dale said private investors are currently interested in the building and some of them have proposed to open it up as a coffee house. But she added that this is only one of the many possibilities for the building's future. "The Board is pursuing lots of different options, and a coffee house would be only one of them," she said. The University is planning to open a coffee house of its own, called Chats, in the Class of 1920 Commons Dining Hall next semester.