 |
|
|
 May
2005
Counter Culture
Here's the scoop on the Coop, Pomona's casual campus
eatery for students, staff and faculty.
|
|
|
By Maggie Fick '07
The
Coop Fountain serves up comfort food, a funky mix of tunes and a very
casual attitude. For students, it’s a place to grab a late-night snack
or just kick back. Staff and faculty flock there for free sodas and
quick meals. Alumni return to reminisce.
|
|
The Coop Fountain serves as
Pomona's casual hangout. |
|
|
|
|
Dating back to the 1930s, the Coop has been around longer than the 47
phenomenon and for much longer than Smith Campus Center, its current
home.
Generations of Sagehen chefs have learned to fry at the Coop. Today, the
Fountain employs 45 students from the five colleges. Some are shy or
quiet people, said Manager Brenda Schmit, but “working at the Coop
really brings them out of their shell. It is great to watch them grow.”
Erin Noble ’07 and Hal Wershow ’07 are dedicated “Coopsters” who enjoy
their jobs. Both students are rambunctious guys who started their
careers at the Coop with very little cooking experience.
However, with a
little training, they learned how to perfect a chicken quesadilla,
handle a busy Friday night shift, and they even became creative with
their cooking. Noble and Wershow said they especially like it when their
friends come in and they order “fun sandwiches” such as Wershow’s own
creation, a cheesestick sandwich. Noble encourages people to try his
“Bananas a la Erin,” a specialty that only dedicated customers know
about.
Jill Lombardi ’07 is a new employee of the Coop, and she is still
enjoying getting to know the inner workings. “I just learned how to make
a great milkshake,” Lombardi says. “It’s important to make sure it has
just the right thickness.” Milkshakes are undoubtedly one of the most
popular items on the Coop’s menu, along with the famous curly fries that
are hard to resist after a late night study session or a long weekend
night spent dancing at a campus party.
The Coop Fountain sold 8,581
shakes in a recent year. |
|
|
|
|
|
Two trademarks of the Coop are the hats and the music. Employees are
required to cover their hair, but most are very creative with their
choices, ranging from knit caps to bandannas to
neon, ’80s-inspired visors. Noble explains that his “bright pink hat
embodies (his) super chef powers.”
The tunes employees play are equally eclectic, ranging from Johnny Cash
to Outkast, from the Beatles to Nirvana. Employees are allowed to choose
the music that plays throughout the day, so it’s anyone’s guess as to
what they will hear when they walk in the door. “I like any music I can dance around to,"
says Wershow.
The Coop also has been a place for Sagehens to find romance. Schmit
said that she has heard of many Pomona couples meeting at the Coop.
Schmit has even met married couples that come back to the Coop years
later to reminisce. She slyly mentioned that two of her employees became
a couple while working the same shift.
Busy faculty and staff stop in for a fast lunch or a jolt of caffeine.
Chemistry Professor Dan O’Leary eats here about once a week, grabbing a
bacon cheeseburger or, if he’s really rushed, a tuna sandwich. “It’s probably
the one place on campus where I run into other faculty on a regular
basis,” he says. “It’s got that kind of social effect to it.”
O’Leary also acknowledges that the free sodas for faculty and staff are
part of the attraction. “That pulls me in,” he says.
David Scott, director of stewardship and memorial funds, is a Coop
regular, coming two or three times a week for a grilled cheese or BLT.
"A gathering place like the Coop is an icon of a small college, a 'hub'
of student life,’’ he says. “And it reminds me of my college years.”
|
|
A couch near the back of the Coop offers a chance to
relax. |
|
|
|
|
As for the food, Scott adds: “Best bacon in town, no question!”
Shakes, burgers, quesadillas and chicken tenders are top sellers, and
Schmit said the menu hasn’t changed much during her more than ten years
as manager.
But the Coop has adapted to the times in other ways. Recently, the Coop
made efforts to become more environmentally friendly. At the
recommendation of Pomona’s Environmental Quality Committee (EQC), the
Coop now serves food in reusable plastic baskets instead of paper
plates, and uses small paper to-go cartons instead of plastic boxes.
And faculty and staff may be pleased to learn of another change: The Coop
Fountain will be open for lunch this summer for the first time in years.
SIDEBAR: The story behind the Coop's name
and its many moves
Over the decades, the Fountain’s location has changed but its special place
in Pomona life has remained the same.
|
|
The fountain in 1951 after Edmunds Unions was
expanded. |
|
|
|
|
The restaurant originally was in Pomona’s Edmunds Student Union, which
opened in 1937 and was also known as the Coop. The nickname either
derived from the first ASPC store run as a cooperative, or from an area
in one of the original College buildings which was used to sell books
and sundries and was called the “little coop,” according to Granite and
Sagebrush, a history of the College written by Frank Brackett.
The soda fountain moved to a new wing of Edmunds in 1950 during the
first expansion of the Coop. The Pomona College Bulletin
described the “striking modern appearance” of the new digs, with
irregular counters and large sliding glass doors along one side.
The fountain sometime after the
1970 renovation of Edmunds Union. |
|
|
|
|
|
By 1969, the fountain had become “grimy and sadly in need of complete
reequipping and refurbishing,” according to the Bulletin. The eatery
found temporary sanctuary in a trailer during a major renovation of
Edmunds (a.k.a. the Coop), and students had to get by with a menu
reduced to drinks and sandwiches – no grill. The Fountain returned in
1970 to the remodeled Edmunds, billed in a press release as “more
sophisticated in appearance, outgoing, expressive, socially aware and
‘turned on’ to the modern-day needs of the college community.”
In 1997, The Coop Fountain temporarily shifted into in the Walker
Fishbowl as most of the Edmunds Union was torn down to make way for the
new Smith Campus Center, which became the fountain’s permanent home when
construction ended.
In 2002, a stairway was added to enhance the flow between the
Smith Campus Center’s upstairs recreation room and the first-floor Coop
Fountain. Today, the College is considering plans to move the recreation
area to the bottom floor, connected to the Coop Fountain, just as it was
years ago. -- Maggie Fick and Mark Kendall
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Follow Our News on... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Explore Pomona's Web |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find It |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
