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Ibis an oasis of hipness --
and fine coffee -- in LDS Logan
By Blaine Adams
May 12, 2009 | Caffe Ibis is that coffee shop that
has fresh biscotti and sports walls adorned with herbs
and syrups (all organic!). Not an unusual place; quite
common in every city in America. But in Logan, Utah,
the café is positively counterculture. Logan doesn't
run on coffee. This city runs on faith—a religion that
views coffee drinking as a sin. Somehow, the same sort
of coffee shop that fights for survival in every town,
this original version of Starbucks, the store selling
the vegan fare and encouraging people to recycle, here,
is absolutely alternative.
In a town that gravitates to the big box Best Buys
and shops at the Wal-Marts, not to mention the latest
trends (albeit six months late), Caffe Ibis is that
miracle story—the mom and pop that survives, if not
thrives, on outsider status.
The shop's on Federal Avenue, the self-regarded "hippie
section" of town—a title the stores congregated here
wear as an honor badge. At times, the street feels alien,
foreign—Logan is the quintessential small-town USA—but
understanding these businesses is key to knowing the
means of Logan. This is a town that grits its teeth
and accepts stores like Caffe Ibis, but it never embraces
them. Downtown Logan may surround Federal Avenue like
a friendly hug, but the city is never at ease.
Still, the bustle in the shop is impressive. Students
lounge on natural wood furniture seated atop stone floors.
Employees are ready to greet customers with a friendly
hello—if they're not too busy mixing drinks. Paninis
and croissants fill the shelves, and it's rare to not
see a line stretching to the front door. The regulars—and
there are many—are not just drawn to the casual atmosphere,
but also the lack of judgment. It's possible to see
young men and women order only hot chocolate—young Mormons,
they're drawn to the scene—and one wonders if they don't
feel transported to another time and place—Seattle in
the '90s, or New York of the '20s. It may be cliché,
but Caffe Ibis is an oasis in a city that has both a
tabernacle and a temple—of the LDS religion—on Main
Street, and overlooking the city, respectively.
Caffe Ibis also has a shop on Utah State University's
campus in the student center. Not as busy as the downtown
store, but still trafficked. The campus store is more
tailored as an express bar, and indeed, it's easy to
see students grabbing coffee on their way to class,
or drinking an espresso before an early morning class.
But the clientele is small: unlike the Federal Avenue
location, the campus store can't pull from the entire
community at large. But the feeling is the same—a sense
of being somewhere forbidden, ordering something exotic,
and enjoying something illicit. It isn't in many towns
that something as simple as a cup of coffee means so
much. But in Logan, the alternative, without the relaxed
atmosphere, without the hangout for the "cool kids,"
without the Caffe Ibis, would be a tangible emptiness.
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