The 205 Coffee Bar: A Coffee Shop for All (Madison Brechbuhler)

Pictured above is The 205 Coffee Bar on a rainy afternoon. The outside is grey and black with a matching, modern, grey interior with wooden seating.  With its’ open concept  floor plan and minimalist style, The 205 creates an atmosphere in which all are welcome.

Summary and Analysis

Coffee shops have become a staple location for many people for a variety of different reasons. They are a melting pot of college kids, co-workers, and everything in between. Some people may go to a coffee shop for its’ social aspect of meeting up with a friend or group. Other’s go there to do some of their best thinking or study for their next exam. With the 205 Coffee Bar being so close to a college campus as well as the thriving main street of Holland, Michigan, I believe it aims to be an inclusive spot where anyone could go for a number of reasons and represents a gender-neutral environment where all are welcome.

The 205-coffee bar is located near the corner of 9^th and Columbia Avenue. It has received reviews such as: “wonderful service, great coffee, and really special owners. She remembered my name by the second day after only taking my order and they were extremely patient with the hundreds of college students that were dropping in on them.” (Facebook). It is the closest coffee shop to 2 all female dorms on Hope College’s campus as well as an art museum across the street. The building is brick painted different shades of black and grey. On one side the building has a large black and white floral mural that has become the back drop of many college student’s social media posts. Another focal point is the two, large glass garage doors that can be opened in the summer. One is on the opposite wall of the mural and the other faces the street. When the doors are open, it creates a bar like atmosphere where people can sit and drink coffee or eat a baked good both inside and outside.  The inside décor is best described as minimalistic and modern. The walls are a fairly neutral dark blue color, the metal accents are dark, and the wood that tops the counters and seating is all light.

The whole place has an inviting smell of coffee and aside from the sound of people conversing, you can hear upbeat music playing in the background. The seating is unique inside the 205 which gives it a different feel from the other coffee shops in town. There are 3 high, large 6-person tables with stools towards the front of the shop near the garage door bar which has at least 8 movable stools. There are two different high-top bars that seat 4 people each – one of them being in line with the long counter that divides the shop from seating to where the coffee is made. The final type of seating within the shop is 3 low, half booth, half stool tables and 3 high-top, half booth, half stool tables. Each of these seating arrangements cater to a different type of coffee shop goers as well as gives the place a less cramped feel.

Upon observing the coffee shop in the afternoon, I noticed that there was surprisingly an equal amount of men and women and the age range seemed to pretty varied. There definitely seemed to be a presence of college age girls studying together, middle aged men working and conversing with each other, and a few college-age men sitting by themselves doing work. Because of the varied seating and neutral environment, the space seems to be inclusive. One thing I did notice, from class discussion, was that even though the environment was a social place where people met up to converse, during my time spent there it was audibly significant the amount of loud male voices I heard as opposed to female voices. This may not say anything about the coffee shop specifically; but rather that society accepts the dominance of man in a conversation and expects a female’s conversation to be kept quieter. Judith Lorber quotes that “as a process, gender creates the social differences that define “man” and “woman”. In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected wats, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order.” (Lorber, 28).

One interesting aspect about the seating is that the stools are all movable and the space is open enough to be wheelchair accessible as well as accommodating to those with similar disabilities. This space is more inviting to people with disabilities than other coffee shops in the area that are laid out with the typical table and chair setup that become quite cramped when filled with people. One area of improvement to make the space more usable by those with disabilities is to add braille to the menus as well as the labels to the airpots that are placed at the self-serve coffee station to better cater to those who are blind. Another thing I noted was that none of moveable seating, had backs to them – they were all stools. Whether this was done for aesthetic purposes or to limit the amount of time a person spends at the shop is a hard call to make.

The simple glassware that is used to serve the coffee is also something to be noticed. I feel as though in the past the division in coffee has been that a beverage, such as a latte, is a “girly drink” and the more masculine drink is a plain dark roast coffee. The 205 has only 2 different types of mugs for their hot beverages and, matching with the theme of the rest of the shop, there is nothing innately feminine or masculine about how the coffee is served. It can also be said that none of the names to the specialty drinks denote a feminine or masculine quality to them.

In conclusion, The 205 Coffee Bar represents a more modern, gender and age neutral coffee shop in which many different types of people are seen visiting. Even due to the fact that the shop sits diagonal to 2 large female dorms, there is nothing stereotypically feminine about the space and the setup of the indoor space allows for people to come and do a variety of different things from socializing to writing a paper.

Discussion Questions:

1. In a town, do you see a coffee shop as being one of the better examples of an inclusive space, or is The 205 an exception to this?
2. Are there any other improvements you could see being made to make this coffee shop and others more inclusive yet still neutral?