It's another place for coffee fanatics - The Cyber Caf offers futuristic ambiance, caffienated drinks and quality baked goods

You might not be an artist. You might not be a musician. But chances are, you'll stop traffic to get a cup of coffee before class and will move mountains for a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans. Yes, for all the great art studios, practice rooms and student offices that the Mattin Arts Center offered to students when it opened last spring, the Caf still gets hands-down praise for the most valuable addition there.

What started out as an entrepreneurial venture with Caf Q in the MSE library three years ago has become a fundamental part of Hopkins life. The Arts Center caf is now the fourth coffee cart on the Homewood campus to open under the management of Seattle natives Ashley and Matt McCauley, who left behind their grad school studies on the West Coast several years ago to travel 5,000 miles bearing gifts of good coffee to those on the East. For all of us who have grown to love their specialty mochas, this cross-country move was the beginning of game time.

Before the Mattin Center even broke ground, Caf Q was the couple's first espresso bar venture. Despite an initial start-up cost $40,000, the coffee stand realized their return on investment in only three months. A tell-tale sign of unrealized potential on a caffeine-craved campus, the Caf's success soon led to expansion. The Buzz at Gilman and the Buzz at Bloomberg soon followed to crank out latts for the growing population of college coffee consumers. Now with the Mattin Center and several other locations around town - including the VA Hospital and the med school - the espresso stands produce an approximate annual revenue of $500,000 for all locations.

Each of the four coffee bars sells coffee shop food, too - with varying selection - but the Mattin Center caf takes the cake. While you'll find fresh croissants, muffins and biscotti at Gilman and Bloomberg, and even sushi and pita sandwiches at Caf Q, the Mattin Center caf is the first to go beyond just a rolling caffeine cart. This full-service shop offers soup, sandwiches and smoothies, too.

The caf employs 45 students who keep the coffee coming for the entire campus. The caf's Web site, http://www.espressouniverse.com, estimates that Caf Q itself serves over 1,000 customers each day, and the tally hasn't even been taken for the new Mattin Center caf yet. Although the new caf recently shortened its hours to close at 10 p.m. instead of midnight, it provides coffee lovers with one more venue and one shorter walk to satisfy the urge. Plus, unlike the other classic campus coffee carts, it carries its own as one high-tech hot spot. Stop by and check out the snazzy, cyber-caf look with its flat-screen, Ethernet-linked computers and avant-garde green lighting. Metallic caf tables and futuristic slate tiles add to the experience.

What more could possibly be added to the secret to success? Not only is the Buzz coffee delicious, but the McCauley have targeted their marketing efforts to reach out to the student population, offering their popular club-card program that gives patrons a free espresso drink for every 10 purchased. Frankly, what could be better than free coffee? More discount offers come with the new pre-paid coffee cards and with purchase of a Caf Q mug, which allows patrons a grande-sized coffee for the price of a tall every time.

With all these great offers, there's no excuse for settling for a boring bubble-pot of RoFo coffee. With all the success of the Mattin Center caf, maybe it's not such a bad idea to abandon academia in search of a coffee cart business.