I went to get breakfast and coffee from Suize’s Cafe at Central Library last week. Suzie’s is located at a fairly easily accessible location on campus that is on main campus(where sophomores and upperclassmen who live on campus live) and by the bridge that connects to the freshman residential commons. The cafe was fairly crowded with a line that stretched outside to order despite the cold. Inside it was warm with blue-green walls decorated with a large picture of a yellow flower and another large picture of a dandelion. The line passed refrigerators to grab food and drink orders and payment were handled at the counter.
Inside the cafe was noisy with conversation coming from groups of people both in line and waiting for drinks and one person making a phone call. This crowdedness was likely due to a rush from people’s morning classes ending at the same time. None of the interactions between people sounded confrontational. The interaction of ordering a drink and paying with a meal-swipe was very straightforward, without pleasantries or any perceived rude demeanor. Unsurprisingly, the people at Suzie’s were all college aged. I noticed in this particular group the patrons were predominantly white, but without counting there appeared to be an even amount of men and women.
Adjacent to the cafe is a common room, an area of the library that allows food or drink, where I went to write out bullet points to be converted into written field notes and then work on other work while having breakfast. The room had many spread out tables and was full of people but also quiet. The walls are the same color as in the cafe, but are only decorated with empty shelves, signs requesting mask compliance, and a sign that identifies the location as part of Vanderbilt’s library system. The most beneficial feature of the common room is the lighting, as the dim overhead lights combined with many windows make the lighting not dark, but not overwhelmingly bright which is good for a place to spend mornings.