Have a cup of coffee while you surf.
That’s the theory behind trendy Internet cafes, places where you can surf the Net, do word processing or engage in on-line chatting while sipping a cup of gourmet coffee or tea. Surf-and-sip coffee shops began springing up in California a few years ago, and now the first Internet cafe in the western suburbs has opened in Lombard.
At Timber Creek, the espresso bar is right across from four computer stations connected to high-speed dedicated lines to the Internet and to a laser printer and a color printer. For $8 an hour, customers can play or work to their hearts’ content. Time is sold in 15-minute increments, and many customers cruise in, grab a cup of coffee, put a disk in a computer, print out color copies of work they’ve done elsewhere and sign out within 15 minutes, paying just $2 for the computer access time and 25 cents for each printed page.
Others come to play in an America Online chat room, “talking” with people who are likewise sitting at computers throughout America and other nations. Still others come in to write a school paper, do some work for the office or conduct research on the Internet.
What about that No. 1 computer rule: Never drink over a keyboard?
“We have `safeskins,’ rubber shells that fit over the keys,” says co-owner Jean Reneau, pointing out the clear key coverings on the two Macs and two Compaqs. “The keys still feel the same. We haven’t had any spills yet, but I’m sure it will happen eventually.”
Jean and husband Russell opened the doors to the coffee shop the first of this year. Most of their customers are commuters who grab a coffee to go, then hop on the Metra train just outside the door. The Reneaus, who also live in Lombard, sell more than 100 cups of coffee between 6 and 9 every morning.
Increasingly, however, people are coming in for a cup of coffee, noticing the computers, finding out that the Reneaus can help them with computer questions and wandering back into the shop later to rent some time.
“A lot of people are those who’ve never been on the Internet and are intrigued,” Jean says. “They want to know what all the hoopla is about, so they come in and try it.”
Russell brought the cyber cafe concept back from a computer convention in San Francisco and let it percolate for a couple of years. “At that point, very few people had heard about the Internet,” he says, “but in the last year it started getting a lot of publicity. We’re doing all the functions of what you can do with a computer, but we’re also a coffee shop where we sell beans and tea. We also have started to have entertainment on Friday nights.”
The shop is small but comfy, outfitted with a sofa and a coffee table covered with magazines. There are tables for in-person chatting or computers for on-line chatting. A large, glass-front service bar offers three brewed coffees daily (a flavored, a regular and a decaffeinated) or loose-leaf tea or juices and an array of breads, muffins, cookies, fruit and biscotti. Coffee prices range from 75 cents for a small cup to $2.50 for specialty espressos.
The Reneaus insist on a homey atmosphere to go with the family-business friendliness they want to convey. In fact, it’s not unlikely that you might see one of their 3 1/2-year-old twin daughters, B.J. or Hannah, sitting in front of a computer to watch a “Living Book” on CD-ROM.
Have they brewed up a strong enough concept to be successful?
“Every week we’re seeing more and more people in here,” Jean says. “We’ve tripled our business in the last two months.”
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Timber Creek, 15 S. Park Avenue, Lombard, is open 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Its Web site on the Internet is http://www.tccafe.com. Phone 708-268-0559.
