Coffeeshop Chronicles

Episode 2: Flightpath Coffeehouse

Neighborhood: Northern Hyde Park
Address/Phone: 5011 Duval, 458-4472
Hours: Daily, 8:30am-midnight

Munchables: Pastries, bagels

Standard Cup o' Joe: $1.28 (refills $.60)

Crowd: Students/UT transitional

Artwork: Painting and photography shows

Soundtrack: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Esquivel, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue

Bonus Points: Ample seating, accessible power outlets

The Room: Here's the big question for the Flightpath: What happens in April, when the airport (and its approach patterns) move south to Bergstrom? By now the caffeinated customers are thoroughly conditioned to ignore the screechand roar of incoming jets, even when the planes come in fast and low over the neighborhood trees. You never know ... the silence might just drive them crazy.

The Flightpath Coffeehouse opened a few years back as a quirky little joint serving the residential area north of pricier Hyde Park. Since airline noise had traditionally kept property values and rents down, the neighborhood is inhabited by students fleeing West Campus overcrowding or the cookie cutter 'plexes of Far West. These students form the core of Flightpath's regular clientele, who routinely fill the tables and lounge areas with tall coffee glasses and reams of scribbled exam notes.

The main rooms are furnished with a jumble of multicolored Sixties furniture, including about 10 formica kitchen table sets that a hip gramma would have bought at the peak of the Space Race. Low-slung striped velour armchairs sit next to split-level triangular end tables, while photo-print polyester shirts dangle from a wire ceiling grid. Yellow stucco walls make the roomswelcoming day or night. Wide, amoeboid coffeetables are perfect for spreading out review notes or the odd pickup game of Scrabble.

On any given school night, the Flightpath becomes a perfect java-powered study hall, complete with plenty of accessible outlet space for laptop computer jockeys. Cushy couches and groups of comfy vinyl chairs fill up with informal study groups or solitary readers sipping their way through Xeroxed reserve readings.

If you're looking for a place to feel simultaneously relaxed and productive, pull up an old kitchen chair and listen to the roar of incoming air traffic ... while you still can. -- Pableaux Johnson