LET ’ S JUST
SAY IT : the Che Café has seen more history than any other building on the UC San Diego campus .** Ever since it was plucked from its roots as an army barracks and trucked into Revelle woods to become the first student center . Ever since the frats dug trenches for plumbing and the kitchen served a Ureyburger . 1 Back then it was known as the Coffee Hut , a cozy college hangout for the first years of its life , until the pervasive campus conflict of late ’ 60s created a fight over , of all things , food . 2
Until 1967 , Revelle College cafeteria was the main campus eatery , epitomizing the early ideals of UC San Diego interaction : a place where intellect knew no division and faculty , undergrad and grad students all dined together , everyone equal at the lunch table . But this dynamic was shaken when the cafeteria decided to serve only those on a residence hall meal plan . Former student Brian Ritter recalls witnessing his first protest : “ Leftist graduate student Barry Shapiro ’ 69 3 spoke about the social division of the policy , how it essentially left no comfortable space for interaction . But the result was the Coffee Hut became the place for intellectuals to meet and interact .”
The Coffee Hut became the prototypical space for those countercultural times — imagine a roomful of free-thinking students , a rotation of folk singers in one corner and radical leftists in another , debating the philosophy behind their next protest . It became the hub of discussion for the larger activist causes of the time , be it the end of the Vietnam War , Third College self-determination or resistance to CIA involvement on campus .
“ It became a place where the more militant students were comfortable ,” says Ernest Mort , resident dean of Revelle College , who frequented the Coffee Hut .
Students embraced the space , and its lean was undeniably left , a haven for those who find resistance irresistible . But a new conflict would come in May 1979 , when then-Chancellor William McElroy proposed a solution to the $ 53,000 debt 4 the Hut had accrued : convert the space into a faculty club . But the clientele wouldn ’ t have it — their student fees had created the space , and they were determined to keep it . After months of protest from A . S . Councilmembers 5 , the Hut ultimately landed in the hands of the Student Center Board — a blank canvas for students to create something .
THE ONSET OF THE ’ 80S was a boom time for campus co-ops , each with a specialized niche , anything from recycling to books to bicycle maintenance , and of course , food . A . S . gave a handful of members from the food co-op the opportunity to clean up the Coffee Hut and start a student-operated vegetarian restaurant . As one of those members , Kalene Walker , recalls : “ Winter break of 1979 was spent scraping hamburger and French-fry grease off the walls , cleaning , painting , and dreaming . Imaginations ran wild . We had a great time working hard , and visioning — what could we do with this space ?”
It was truly a frontier . Outside of the buildings themselves were the forested grounds , enough room to grow their own food , compost kitchen refuse and otherwise hold to the environmentalism 6 of the time . Imaginations also ran wild on what to name the space , and outside of assorted origin myths , 7 the one certainty is the Hut ’ s leftist legacy was given a
COUNTER CULTURE The menu was the message for years at the Che Café . Photographer Fred Lonidier , MFA ’ 73 , captured decades of this culture at UC San Diego — see more at tritonmag . com / fred
Photo : Fred Lonidier , MFA ’ 73
** So much history
We had to annotate this thing .
Seriously — for the full story , have tritonmag . com / che open as you read this . visual identity in the image of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara . This would seem to foreshadow the guerilla resistance to come , but there was little incident in those early years of the reborn Che Café — it was simply a quirky , funky coffee shop that reflected the alternative ethos of the ’ 80s with a focus on vegetarianism and veganism and healthy , sustainable living choices . It had all the trappings of a homegrown , post-hippie haven : juice bar , sprout shed , tempeh press for McChe burgers , secret veggie chili recipes , and of course , the legendary all-you-can-eat pasta nights .
But for those involved , it was much more than that . As Walker explains , “ A food co-op inherently can explore and address many interrelated concepts — alternative business structure and collective management ( i . e . one who sweeps the floor also gets to participate in business decisions ), our connection to our food supply ( farmers !), alternative health / preventative medicine — all of these concepts sparked my interest unlike anything in the regular university curriculum .”
The Che never lost its radical roots ,
either . By 1984 , when UC San Diego
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