Feeding the Lamonster

Next fall in Lamont, expect to see students sipping espresso and munching on carrot cake as they print off those last-minute essays. The third floor will have a whole new look, when the as-yet-unnamed café opens in the current Reference Room.

While café planners have not worked out all the details, Beth S. Brainard, director of communications for Harvard College Library, said last week that the new café will include both sofas and study tables, with seating for 88 of your closest study-buddies.

As for the most important question­—what will there be to eat?—UC Rep Ryan A. Petersen ’08, who sits on the Lamont Café Committee (LCC), says to expect “nothing greasy, but mostly small prepackaged foods, bagels, sandwiches, things like that. Nothing that is really messy.”

LCC student members are currently soliciting suggestions for a name for the new café, including: Lamonster, Labrontasaurus, Stacks N Snacks, Midnight Oil, and The Larry Summers Memorial Cafe.

According to an unofficial FM poll conducted Sunday in the reference room, support for the new café is mixed.

“It encourages people to stay in Lamont,” says S. Faraz Munaim ’06. “It would increase the nerdiness factor at this school.”

Richard A. Krumholz ’07, who says he does all of his homework in the Reference Room, worries about the change.

“You don’t destroy the estuary to build a beautiful park. The Lamont Reference Room is a gem that should never be replaced.”

But Natalia Rigol ’08 says that a café on the third floor would be a good idea.

“I just don’t like to study in a quiet place,” says Rigol, who was studying in the Reference Room because she could find a seat there. “I’d rather have a café-style place to do work.”

Whatever the name, come next year, students will be able to have their books, their coffee, their cake, and eat it too.