March 1, 2012
Café Opus has been in business at Hamilton College for 17 years, and it is easily one of the College’s most beloved features today.
Opus began in the early 1990s as the brainchild of Sarah Goldstein and Larry Bender, who met as faculty spouses and bonded over the lack of good coffee in the area. After talking with the College for three years, Opus began its operation in January 1995 in its current location, which had been a student-run coffeehouse during the Kirkland College days. Both Goldstein and Bender had just come from parts of the country with a strong coffeehouse culture (Ann Arbor and Portland, respectively), and they sought to replicate that taste and atmosphere in central New York.
It may seem outdated now, but in 1995, the seating area around Opus 1 was a smoking lounge for students, created once smoking was banned in the dorms and other public buildings. The early days of Opus were smoke filled and, according to Goldstein, there were lots of requests for drip coffee and few for more exotic drinks, like espresso. But as the years have gone by, west coast coffeehouse culture has spread throughout the country, and now Opus’s clientele is familiar with a variety of caffeinated beverages. Opus 2 opened in the newly renovated Science Center as soon as renovations were completed in 2005.
What makes Opus such a popular spot on campus? “Caffeine is number one,” Goldstein said. “But it’s also the casual space, the flexible space. It’s a place where students’ social life and studying life is intertwined, a semi-private but semi-public space. It fills that in-between need.”
One of Opus’s signature features is the employment of student workers. Opus is one of the more envied jobs on campus, both for its perks of a free drink with every shift and for the excitement of working behind a coffee shop counter. It has a reputation for being one of the best student jobs on campus, but according to student workers, barista work is an intensive job. “I think it’s maybe less romantic than it seems,” Nick Green ’12 said. “There’s a lot of mopping the floor and taking the trash out. It’s a real job, and there’s a lot of work involved.”
“As much as you learn, it’s a humbling experience,” Frankie Caracciolo ’13 said.
Opus workers take their jobs seriously and are always looking to improve their service. “We really want to focus on good service. I love the social aspect of it, but you have to remember there are customers and a line,” Green said.
Yet even with the hard work, a job at Opus is a truly unique Hamilton experience. The work atmosphere, according to Green, has “lots of laughter and joking around.” Many workers have been employed at Opus since their freshman year and cannot imagine their college careers without the coffee house community.
“Opus provides a community that I wouldn’t have found anywhere else on campus. Not only are the people I work with tremendous, but the relationship with the customers as well,” Becca Pomerantz ’12 said.
As for the workers themselves, many are quick to point out that common stereotypes about the workers and clientele are greatly exaggerated. “Opus types—just a myth,” Caracciolo said.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a skinny vanilla latte or a granola type,” Green said: Anyone can work at or enjoy Opus.
Opus serves a variety of functions for the student body, from its coffees and teas to breakfast and the ever-popular lunches to the widely famous Opus cookies. Far from being a secret only known to upperclassmen, plenty of underclassmen are already hooked on Opus’s meals and drinks.
“I made it my New Year’s resolution to only go [to Opus] once a week, and I broke it the first day I got back,” Anna Brown ’15 said. “I’ve already been twice today, and I feel like I should go again in two seconds.”
“Everything is phenomenal at Opus,” Ashley Carducci ’15 said.
As for recommendations from the café’s founder, Goldstein suggests the “underappreciated” Magnum Opus (called a Red Eye at other coffeehouses), which she says is “good caffeine for your dollar.” And of course, the legendary Mango Brie Panini is a must try before one leaves Hamilton. “It’s such a blockbuster, even we can’t understand how it happened,” Goldstein said.
Some upperclassmen may remember concerns during the Sadove renovations that Euphoria, long rumored to be a Starbucks, would cut into Opus’s business. However, this has obviously not been the case, and both Opus branches continue to thrive. Opus’s founders “brought Starbucks here in [their] own way. They brought that coffeehouse culture here,” Green said.
For Goldstein and Bender, a recent highlight was being included in Hamilton’s “200 Days” project. “We thought, ‘Wow, we really made it.’ That makes you feel like you’re in. It takes a long time to become part of an institution and become entrenched there,” Goldstein said. If the swarming lines on Mango Brie Panini day (or any day at lunchtime, for that matter) are any indication, then Cafe Opus has certainly reached the point of welcome entrenchment at Hamilton.