Blue State Coffee is no longer exclusive to the Brown community. Now Yale students, too, can enjoy a cup of coffee at the company's New Haven, Conn., location, which opened Feb. 12.
The new store is in the heart of Yale's campus, on the ground floor of an academic building right across from a residential hall. The company rents the space from Yale.
Alex Payson '03.5, co-owner and manager of Blue State, said the company chose New Haven in part because co-owner and co-founder Drew Ruben is a sophomore at Yale. In addition, he said, one of the other four founders is a Yale alum.
"We know the area," Payson said. "Our ideal demographic is the liberal New England college town, and it works pretty well for us."
The new location will be similar to the one on Thayer Street in "basic concepts and ideas," Payson said, but it will work hard to "cater to the local community."
Both shops "give away 5 percent (of profits to different charities), both are eco-friendly and both are local," Ruben said. "But Yale focuses more on social justice causes, and the Providence-based one focuses more on educational and environmental causes. The differences reflect the surrounding environment."
Both Payson and Ruben said the store has been well-received so far.
"Business has been fantastic - far better than we could have hoped," Payson said.
Matthew George, a Yale sophomore, was enthusiastic about Blue State in New Haven.
"There's a ton of coffee shops here, so it was nice to have one that set itself apart. It has a purpose - the charity stuff influences everything," George said. He added that despite the prevalence of coffee shops in the area, Blue State is "usually pretty darn packed."
Payson said Blue State plans to expand further "in the next year or two."
"We're going to stick with New England for the next couple stores," he said, mentioning Boston, New York City and another Rhode Island location as possibilities. "When we've really got the model perfect, we can open up in Ann Arbor, Wisconsin, San Fran, Berkeley, L.A."
Ruben said expansion would be relatively slow because the owners want to keep each store unique.
"It takes a lot of careful attention to make each store really reflect the local community and not just be a cookie-cutter hodgepodge of ideas," he said.
