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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2001)
Get Out of the Fog and into more original cafe Rebecca Wilson Emerald Located at 839 Lincoln St., Out of the Fog offers a full line of organic and socially responsible pastries, coffee and espresso beverages. WELLS FARGO so FREE .. it comes with a gift ’Offer expires March 31,2001 Limited quantities available ‘No annual fee when linked as overdraft protection to your Wells Fargochecking account. Credit card issued by Wells Fargo Bank Nevada, N.A. and is subject to qualification, issuance of the ATM & Check Card is subject ro qualification .w2.0D4 Wells Fargo Banks Members FDIC.AII Rights Reserved It's true. With a Wells Fargo" Student Combov Package, you get free banking services and a free Wells Fargo T-Shirt.' The Student Combo Package • Free Checking • Free Student Visa® Card' * • ATM & Check Card1 • Free Online Account Access and much more Sign up today at a Wells Fargo location nearest your school. ■ Offering organic products and an ardent atmosphere, Out of the Fog goes beyond a typical coffee shop By Rebecca Wilson Oregon Daily Emerald It is Wednesday afternoon, and Out of the Fog is packed with cus tomers needing a caffeine fix. Peo ple in business suits juggle coffee mugs and briefcases as they hurry off to work, while customers with more time on their hands read, chat with friends, munch scones or banter with baristas. This scene is familiar to coffee enthusiasts throughout the Pacific Northwest. However, Out of the Fog, going on its sixth year, offers an out-of-the-ordinary coffee drinking experience for its clien tele. Christina Edmunds and Everetta Butler come here for the food, coffee and especially “the at mosphere,” Butler said. “The peo ple are really relaxed. They don’t care what you look like.” “They love you no matter who you are,” Edmunds said. And, “everything is organic,” added Butler. “Even us.” Owner Brad Lerch also empha sized the organic philosophy of his business. “We want to give people the al ternative of eating organic ... to show that it’s possible,” he said. Out of the Fog uses Cafe Mam (pronounced “mom”) coffee, which is grown in Chiapas, Mexi co. Lerch is part-owner of Cafe Mam and guarantees the coffee growing process fits organic stan dards from start to finish. Cafe Mam beans are also shade grown, which means the beans are planted around native bushes and trees, rather than in deforested ar eas. “There’s a lot of [organic] coffee imported and sold by people who don’t know squat about organic,” said Lerch, who lives on an organ ic farm near Eugene. He explained that many cafes offer organic coffee, but “it’s a waste of organic coffee to put bovine growth hormone milk in it.” In addition to organic cow milk, Out of the Fog offers organic rice and soy milk. But unlike most cof fee shops, customers don’t pay for alternatives. “We’re not going to charge indi vidual people extra for being dairy-free,” Lerch said. Out of the Fog also offers a vari ety of organic pastries and a full espresso menu. The flavored syrups and chocolate mix are 100 percent natural, as is the extensive selection of vibrant loose teas. The spicy homemade chai comes in caffeinated and herbal varieties. But Out of the Fog is known for more than tasty organic beverages and pastries. The little cafe, which is located in an old house near the train tracks, received national publicity last year when it was mentioned in the May issues of Harper’s Magazine and Rolling Stone. Evan Wright wrote a profile of We’re not contributing to capitalistic consumerism, [but the media] made us seem like we all wear black. Chris Callahan manager Out of the Fog an anarchist for Rolling Stone, ti tled “Swamp’s Last Day on Earth.” In the article, Wright called Out of the Fog “ground zero for Eugene’s thriving anarchist population” and “a place where Santa Claus is just another capitalist oppressor.” Manager Chris Callahan ex pressed disdain toward media portrayal of the cafe. “We’re not contributing to capi talistic consumerism,” he said. But the media “made us seem like we all wear black.” Dazzia Szczepaniak, another Fog manager, agreed. “People don’t know the differ ence between activists and anar chists,” she said, emphasizing that the roots of the business stem from activism. Owner Lerch attributed the cafe’s unintentional anarchist im age to its free speech policy. “We’re not Nazis about bulletin boards, and a lot of local business es are very conservative [in com parison],” he said. Tree Free Sunday is one mani festation of the business’s activist attitude. Every Sunday, baristas re fuse to use paper cups. People may drink beverages from glasses or mugs they bring from home. On every other day, customers are charged 15 cents for paper cups. “Most people think it’s crazy for a business not to give people what they want,” Callahan said, but so cial conscience takes precedence over profit for Lerch and his em ployees. The occasional disregard for customers’ preferences hasn’t af fected customer loyalty, especially customers such as Butler and Ed munds. “They let us sell our wares here,” said Butler, who is an artist. “They don’t mind if we make things in the shop.” “It’s a second home,” Edmunds said. Out of the Fog is located near WOW Hall at 839 Lincoln St. It is open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pick up an Emerald, at 12 0 campus & community locations.
