Courtyard Café is abuzz with a new brew -- the Gimme! Coffee trailer

This refurbished 1948 Spartan Manor trailer houses the newest incarnation of Gimme! Coffee in the Ithaca area, a java spot nestled into the courtyard space between Emerson Hall, the Plant Science building and Mann Library. Kevin Stearns/University Photography

By Franklin Crawford

Considering the amount of construction on campus these days, the site of a trailer is hardly noteworthy -- unless it happens to be a refurbished 1948 Spartan Manor airstream trailer advertising Gimme! Coffee nesting where the walls of Emerson Hall, the Plant Science building and Mann Library form what, until recently, had been a space with all the aesthetic charm of a prison yard.

Now that's a conversation piece.

It's also the second step in a cooperative concept called the Courtyard Café -- an effort, according to Professor Susan McCouch, "to transform a barren, wind-swept plaza into an attractive vibrant place for people to sit, read, enjoy a cup of coffee, have a meeting or a chance encounter with a colleague." McCouch is Cornell professor of plant breeding and genetics and member of the Courtyard Café Committee, the group that agitated for the spatial upgrade.

"I'm ecstatic about having Gimme in there and doing business, and I think it's a great example of a successful grass roots effort on this campus," she said. "I hope it's a raving success for Gimme and for the entire community."

Gimme opened for business last week and sales were almost as brisk as the air rushing through the breezeway between Plant Science and Mann. Snow still mantled the outdoor tables and chairs that arrived last fall as part of the initial phase of converting the plaza. But it wasn't too hard to imagine a day when fair weather will allow for exactly what planners envisioned: a charming outdoor café enhanced by urban landscaping, art exhibits and, of course, some primo java.

"I think we are going to help achieve the committee's objective of bringing this space to life," said Kevin Cuddeback, owner of Gimme! Coffee. "And we tried to work out our business plan so there were some town-gown synergies in addition to our campus presence. For instance, one percent of our gross will go to Historic Ithaca."

The effort is truly a cooperative venture. A committee consisting of about 15 faculty, staff and students brought the idea into being and shepherded it through a variety of unforeseen challenges over the last year and a half, said McCouch. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Susan Henry's office provided financial support, as well as Mann Library administration and 10 department chairs in the immediate vicinity of the courtyard. The site will become a major landscaping project for students in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, led by Nina Bassuk, professor of horticulture and Peter Trowbridge, professor of landscape architecture.

Cuddeback calls the mobile coffee unit Gimme V -- it's his fifth operation since opening the first Gimme shop at the corner of Cayuga and Cascadilla streets in downtown Ithaca. Gimme! Coffee was first distributed on campus in Statler Hall and in Goldwin Smith Hall's Temple of Zeus café.

Transforming a trailer into an espresso-friendly unit took about six months of intensive labor. But the Courtyard Café probably won't be Gimme V's permanent place of business. A future café is planned for Mann Library, and once that is up and running, Gimme V will take its show on the road.