Caffeination on campus: The Mary Low Coffee House

It’s hard to imagine that the Mary Low Coffee House  was ever located anywhere else on campus, but ever since it was founded in 1965, the coffee house has had multiple homes. 

The setup  was initially established in Miller Library and has jumped around campus since then— it was even located in Bobs at one point. Furthermore, the coffee house was never consistently open throughout the year, but was revitalized in 2016. The Mary Low common room was converted into a space for the coffee house, which is its current home. 

Marina Takagi `21,the training and hiring manager of the Mary Low Coffee House, joined the staff the fall of her freshman year. 

“I applied and at that point it still was not very popular. There were only like 15 or 16 applicants and I was chosen out of them. I started out as a barista and got trained by the student managers. I took over as a social media manager my sophomore or junior year and I was in charge of updating the Instagram, Colby outposts, answering DMs on Instagram and Facebook. I applied to be one of the managers for this year, which is my senior year and I’m now the social manager, so I am in charge of the hiring process, I answer any questions that students have, and I have been continuing with the social media position as well.”

Similar to other clubs and organizations on campus, the Mary Low Coffee House has its own leadership team. However, this wasn’t always the case. According to Takagi, there used to only be one manager who did everything from scheduling and training to coordinating events. But now the responsibilities are divided among four other managers, who all have different roles. The Mary Low Coffee House also has a faculty advisor, Danielle Hague, an Administrative Assistant for Campus Life. 

As for her favorite part of the job, Takagi said that it is the interaction with student customers. 

“It’s nice to be able to notice regulars and to get their orders right. Just little things like seeing the customers react to a little latte or saying things like ‘this is the best drink I’ve had,’ things like that are really important for my job. I enjoy just being a part of students’ daily lives.” 

Unfortunately, like many other things, COVID-19 has drastically changed the typical functions of the Mary Low Coffee House. 

“We used to be definitely more lively — in the past, students can study there, people have had meetings there with professors, there’s been open mic nights every week so students [could] enjoy student performers and coffee along with it, but these have all been taken away because of COVID[-19]. There are a few clubs that are active in Mary Low and kind of use the space, but not during current hours — they use it after we close, so we don’t really interact with them. Because of COVID[-19], a lot of things have been paused for now.”

Takagi hopes that the Mary Low Coffee House will continue to grow despite these challenges and she is optimistic about its future. She encourages everyone to stop by. 

The coffee house supports local Maine businesses with their products. Their coffee beans are from Tandem Coffee, which is based in Portland, ME and their cold brew from Nobl coffee, a more independent coffee brand based in the Northeastern region.

~ Hae Jung-Kim `24