Brown and Brew now available for student events

The Brown and Brew Coffee House can now be booked for student events on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to midnight.

The cafe, with a capacity of 80, will be suitable for small events such as acoustic shows, spoken word performances, trivia nights and extended club meetings, according to Director of the Office for Campus Life Joe Golia. The space can be reserved through Tufts' online room scheduling system, he said.

“We are very tight for space on campus … so it’s just another option for student organizations if it fits with what they need,” he said.

Golia said that the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate had been talking about opening up Brown and Brew to student groups for the past few years.

“We were aware that this was something students were looking for, and we wanted to be able to respond to that,” Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos said.

Before the Tower Cafe in Tisch Libraryopened in 2004, Brown and Brew used to host late-night acoustic entertainment organized by Programming Board, Klos said. This is why the cafe has spotlights, a raised platform with a backdrop and a limited house sound system, she explained.

Klos emphasized that while students can now book Brown and Brew for small events, they should be respectful of the space and leave it in the condition they found it. Furniture can be rearranged but not removed, and decorations should not be excessive and cannot be taped to the walls, she said.

“We care what it looks [like] when we come in to open up at [8:00 a.m.],” she said. “The person who opens the store has a schedule based on the room being in the condition that we left it the night before. If [it is not], that throws everything off and prevents us from being able to start service when the community is accustomed to being able to come in here and get their breakfast or coffee.”

Klos noted that Tufts Dining Services will have to provide a staff member at each event, because Brown and Brew’s serving area cannot be secured. Tufts Dining Services will cover this cost, at least for the time being.

Student groups will not be allowed to bring in their own food, she said. Instead, Dining Services will be available to work with them to supply coffee, soft drinks or snacks such as popcorn and cookies.

Golia explained that this semester, the OCL is running a pilot program before deciding whether to expand the available booking days.

“And then in the fall we can really push it with the start of the school year," he said. "We’ll be meeting with student organizations, sending a lot of information out, having introductory meetings. That’s a much better time to talk about new things that are happening.”

Golia mentioned that even though many groups have already booked their events for this semester, he hopes the OCL “can get a few things in [Brown and Brew] this spring.”

He explained that the OCL can now start offering Brown and Brew as a possible location for student events. “As events come through the normal registration process for other spaces on campus, we’re going to start suggesting to these groups, ‘Hey, have you thought of Brown and Brew?’ and I think that’s how it will eventually start being used," he said.

“We’re hopeful that it is successful for everybody and that it meets the need for student organizations, that they respect the space … and that enough groups feel like it’s a good destination that it’s worth what it’s going to take to support it,” Klos said.

Sophomore Jacob Katsiaficas, a member of Applejam Productions, said that Brown and Brew seems like a good venue for hosting low-key, folk and acoustic shows.

Dan Turkel, a senior involved in student booking group Midnight at Tufts, echoed this sentiment.

“While this is the first I’m hearing of it, we’re excited to hear about Brown and Brew becoming available for events. There are very few appropriate spaces available for groups like ours that are looking to put on small-scale concerts,” he told the Daily in an email. “We’d definitely be interested in exploring that for something like an acoustic or jazzy show – the coffee-house vibe would suit it quite nicely, I think.”

Golia added that another room in Curtis Hall, where the cafe is located, is being renovated into a graduate student lounge, which he hopes will attract graduate student groups to Brown and Brew as well.

“The graduate students will actually be having a dedication and opening sometime near the end of February, so we hope that besides the undergraduate groups, some of the graduate student organizations might start using Brown and Brew for their events because it’s … right next to their lounge,” he said.