47 Coffee & Culture opened The Loft, a coffee lounge on the second floor of the student center above Starbucks in 1998. Students who worked at Starbucks additionally worked in The Loft. It accepted DCB and was set to remain open until curfew each night. Partly, the SA was keen to create a relaxed atmosphere directly on campus like The Loft due to the success of Midnight Oil. In 1997, Matt and Mandy West saw the need to create a place of fellowship and serve the community. They opened Midnight Oil to fulfill that purpose. In 2009, Midnight Oil was purchased by Kibo Group, a nonprofit organization that worked with communities in East Africa to overcome poverty and injustice. After it opened, Midnight Oil seemed to instantaneously seal its place in the community. Garner recollected the impact of its opening. “I always liked coffee and enjoyed all the coffee drinks, but you just couldn’t get them everywhere, and so when Midnight Oil came in it was just great,” Garner said. He additionally mentioned the role Midnight Oil played in creating a third place for the community. Referencing a book called The Third Place by Ray Oldenburg, Garner shared the three types of places people inhabit: their homes, places of work, and third places that allow people in communities to gather. “In Searcy there were several places you might have called a third place,” Garner said. “There was a restaurant up on the square called Bobby’s. That was a third place. People would come for any number of meals, but breakfast especially. Lots of different types of people would gather there. Then Midnight Oil came in and gave us just a totally different type of place.” Hannah Carpenter, one of the current managers at Midnight Oil, discussed what it was like to grow up in Searcy and the outlet having a local coffee shop provided. She mentioned the popularity of the TV show, “Friends”, which came on every Thursday night, and the exciting impact it had on the culture at the time. “They had Central Perk on ‘Friends,’ and so when Midnight Oil opened, culturally it was this novelty and this thing that’s happening in other places,” Carpenter said. “We didn’t have anything special here like that. Nowhere to hang out late, absolutely nowhere.” Once it opened, Midnight Oil seemed to become Searcy’s version of Central Perk, and Carpenter shared the impact of having this type of a place to gather. “There was no internet on phones like it is now,” Carpenter said. “People weren’t texting all the time, so it was a place to be with people, to be with your friends, to have a cultural experience that people might be having outside of Searcy. It gave kids a place to play music too. My brother grew up playing music, and he would play shows, and we just all hung out.” Junior Cerra Cathryn Anderson, a barista at Midnight Oil, shared her insight on coffee culture from the perspective of a student worker. “My job has brought me some of my best friends, either my coworkers or the regulars I get to see almost every shift,” Anderson said. “I get to be part of a very intentional coffee community that focuses not only on the customer experience but also on an ethically-sourced, quality cup of coffee. I see such a richness and artistry in the coffee-making process that is difficult to access sometimes in a small town like Searcy.” Carpenter had an array of managerial duties, including being in charge of updating and remodeling Midnight Oil. Perhaps most importantly, she endeavored to create a space where students actively went to socialize. This task was not without difficulties. She found the biggest challenge to be a disconnect in the amount of time people spent socializing while trying to provide an interesting place where people wanted to spend time with one another. “From observing myself and my own kids, I think people go home and get on their phones and chill out, and it’s kind of sad,” Carpenter said. “I just don’t think people want to be out anymore. And so that’s been a challenge, but I like a challenge. I’ve been trying to look at it as a challenge to create a space where it’s going to draw people away from that.” Additionally, Carpenter expressed a willingness to connect with students and learn what they wanted to gain from Midnight Oil in the future. Anderson had some ideas that would connect students with local coffee shops while also providing access to a variety of information relating to coffee. “I would love to see more shops around town investing into the community with coffee knowledge – whether that is classes offered, coffee tastings hosted, opportunities to meet local roasters like Rozark, or welltrained baristas who can answer a variety of questions about their product and the coffee market in general,” Anderson said. Anderson and Garner both emphasized the importance of learning about the culture that surrounds coffee. Anderson further elaborated, “I would also love to see coffee shop owners, managers, and baristas diving into the various cultures around coffee that are represented worldwide.” Garner expanded on this sentiment. Opposed to some of the larger coffee farms that could be found in places like Brazil, he discussed coffee production on a smaller scale. “In Ethiopia, we went to some very small coffee farms and coffee co-ops, and I appreciated the smallness of those things as opposed to the gigantic crops,” Garner said. He mentioned the impact of appreciating varieties of coffees, as well as the places they came from. “In Ethiopia for example, there’s this Sidama region. They have a particular type of coffee as opposed to other areas of Ethiopia,” Garner added, “Not that I’m saying don’t drink Folgers, but what I’m saying is to try different types of coffee and learn to appreciate different varieties of tastes.” Overall, local coffee shops provided a place to facilitate coffee culture with a true emphasis on the importance of appreciating other people and community. Written By Cora Freeman Many changes have been made to Midnight Oil since it first opened in 1997. But one thing has not changed – the gathering of students and the community to enjoy coffee together. Photo courtesy of Jeff Montgomery Better Together | The newly named managers of Midnight Oil, Hannah Carpenter (’01) and Sarah Fraser pose for The Bison at Midnight Oil. Carpenter and Fraser were named the co-managers of Midnight Oil in 2023. Photo by Macy Cox Students mix and mingle at Midnight Oil in the early 2000s. Midnight Oil has been a staple in the daily lives of students for studying or a conversation over coffee since it first opened in 1997. Photo courtesy of Jeff Montgomery
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