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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2001)
Espresso Roma serves up unique atmosphere ■The family-owned cafe is popular among students, faculty and community members near campus By Danielle Gillespie for the Emerald Espresso Roma bustles with students ordering coffee, prepar ing for long hours of studying or just trying to make it through class after staying up too late the night before. The back patio is crowded on sunny days, and on rainy days, the crowd migrates inside to fill the seating area. Located at 825 E. 13th Ave., Espresso Roma has been serving the Eugene area for the past 13 years. It is managed by Miguel and Maria Cortez, who also oper ate Cafe Siena. The cafe is a part of a chain of about 50 coffee houses on the West Coast owned by Sandy Boyd, whose corporate office is in Berkeley, Calif., Miguel Cortez said. Though all the coffeehouses are part of the same chain, only three are called Espresso Roma, Cortez said. “The chain of coffeehouses be gan when Boyd built a cafe near (the University of California at Berkeley) in the late 1970s and saw the popularity for coffee among college students. He then decided to build coffeehouses near universities,” Cortez said. According to Cortez, the chain is relatively small compared to Starbucks, but this makes Espres so Roma more family-oriented. Operating cafes is a family affair; Maria Cortez has three brothers who operate coffeehouses in Cali fornia and have been involved with Boyd’s corporation since it began. “I attempt to make people hap Espresso Roma’s patio is considered by many to be the most unique part of its ambience. The coffee shop, located at 825 E. 13th Ave., has been supplying coffee for 13 years. py and establish personal rela tionships with all my customers. We have clientele that have been coming here for 10 years, espe cially from the hospital and pro fessors from the University,” Cortez said. “We really appreciate all of our customers and many professors hold their office hours here, which only helps the busi ness.” Kate Downing, a senior psy To earn a 4*00 in Brewolosy all you need to know is STEELHEAD* □ 9 Award-Winning Micro-Brews □ Sonps, Salads □ Ribs □ Fresh Pizza □ Sandwiches n Pastes □ Burgers □ Spirits n Home-Made Rootbeer TAKE A BREW HOME IN STEELHEAD'S BOX O' BEER Steelhead Brewing Company 199 East 5th Avenue Eugene, OB Phone 686-2739 Eugene, OR - Burlingame, CA - Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, (’A - Irvine, CA chology major at the University, likes the personal atmosphere the owners have strived to create. “The people are always friend ly and know your face. The coffee is great, and it’s not owned by Starbucks,” Downing said. “I get sick of the cookie-cutter atmos phere of places like Starbucks. Espresso Roma provides some thing different and unique.” Espresso Roma has one advan tage that Miguel Cortez said he doubts any of the other coffee houses in Boyd’s chain have: a back patio. He said the patio helps business because it is a nice place for people to sit and relax on sunny days. Maria Cortez also developed the idea to sell pastries with coffee, and she bakes a ma jority of the pastries featured at the cafe. Cortez attributes his business’s success to good service, reason able prices and good coffee. “I think that it is cheap and good,” said Kellie Matecko, a jun ior journalism major at the Uni versity. “It is less expensive than other.places, like Starbucks, and (it) is close to campus. “I love it!” Danielle Gillespie is a freelance reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. Dining out offers options, good and bad ■Students often prefer the convenience of eating out, despite the extra cost By Brook Reinhard Oregon Daily Emerald Joey Sabado goes out to eat about 15 times a week. Sabado, a first-year student at Lane Com munity College, is one of many students living in Eugene who has to make a big decision sever al times a day: Eat out or cook in? For students living off-campus, eating is no longer as simple as wandering down to Carson Hall and trading meal points for food. Buying groceries is less expen sive than going to a restaurant, but then the dishes pile up. Even one of the most convenient meals eaten at home — delivery pizza — still leaves behind a greasy pizza box. Eating out can be costly, but it can offer the benefit of conven ience, as well. A typical dinner at Mazzi’s costs about $15. The fettuccine Alfredo dinner, which comes with soup, salad, bread and Neapolitan ice cream, is $14.75. However, the ingredients for that meal can be bought for $4.67 at a grocery store, which in this case was PC Market of Choice. Simi larly, a student could go to Cafe Zenon and order the pan-roasted Pacific king salmon fillet for $18.75. The meal would be about half that price if cooked at home: The tab comes to $9.45 for the meal. Cost-conscious students may frequent Subway sandwich es. While a footlong turkey sand wich is $4.90 there, it costs roughly $3.60 for the same ingre dients at the store. “leatouttwiceaweek,.. There’s a reason I have a dishwasher.” Ivan Gardzelewski law student Though it may cost more to go out for a meal, there are other fac tors to consider. “I go out to eat at least twice a week just to get away from the law school,” said first-year law student Ivan Gardzelewski. When you go out to eat, “It’s real food,” added Brad Langton, a fresh man in pre-business. Mazzi’s manager Isaac Silva agreed. “80 to 90 percent of our cus tomers have something good to say about the meal,” he said. “I eat out to try new stuff,” Sabado said. Also, restaurants often have ac cess to ingredients consumers don’t. Local stores aren’t stocking Pacific king salmon right now be cause of an over-abundance of coho salmon, according to meat manager Bert Fortner at PC Mar ket of Choice. So Zenon may be the only place in town to serve that particular variety of fish. There is also the dining experi ence to consider. “Mazzi’s has a friendly, family atmosphere,” said Silva. Convenience can also be key. “Subway offers a lot of va riety and is open very late,” said employee Jason McCormick. And after going out to a restau rant, there is often enough food left over to tide students over for the next day or two. “About 25 percent of our customers take something home with them,” Sil va said. Most students will end up find ing some sort of balance between cooking in and eating out. “I take about 5 minutes to make dinner,” said Kyra Johnson, a shopper at PC Market of Choice. If she wants a more time-inten sive dish, she just goes out to eat. “I eat out twice a week,” Gardzelewski said. He added that cooking at home isn’t really much of a problem, either. “There’s a reason I have a dishwasher.” Brook Reinhard is a community reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached at brookreinhard@dailyemerald .com. The Oregon DaHy Emerald. Tour independent Student Newspaper. Serving the UO community tor over 100 years.
