Olde Reed is so Back: Paradox Café

Paradox Café is one of Reed's most treasured student spaces. The café is a student-run business and the only on-campus food option not run by Bon Appétit. Paradox sells coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and baked goods to Reedies, but it also does so much more. The café hosts art sales, student performances, meetings, open mic nights, interviews for this column, and other events that bring Reed's community together. Throughout its history, Paradox has moved locations, opened a new location, gone into debt, gotten out of debt, tangled with Reed's administration, all while persisting as a beloved student space. 

Paradox was preceded by a variety of Student Union coffee shops and student-run collectives. In the 1940s and ‘50s, there was a Student Union coffee shop where students and faculty gathered to discuss current events and academic topics, as well as to play chess, according to Comrades of the Quest. This history is more fully covered in "Paradox Regained" (the Grail article, not the Quest one—Reedie writers just can't resist that joke). Matt Giraud '85, one of the founders of Paradox, also recalls a coffee collective founded sometime in the ‘70s, which eventually fell apart. Comrades of the Quest tells the tale of a student-owned cooperative bookstore, which also disappeared in the late '80s when the trustees decided that students could not manage the store well enough to make a profit. 

Paradox was founded by Giraud and Mike Magrath ’84, with the help of Student Union Manager Holly O’Neil ’86. The café began its life as an art gallery and café in the Student Union, but its journey from idea to Reed institution was difficult. After working at SAGA, the official campus café, Giraud had the experience to work in a café and the desire to do better for the student body. The group got approval from the Dean of Students and assistance from the Physical Plant, after which the first managers purchased furniture at Goodwill and opened the café. Giraud told the Quest that the first year was especially difficult and they did not make any real money, while many older Reedies resisted the new café because of its novelty. However, by its second year of existence, Paradox was making money and became accepted by Reedies of all years. A Paradox handbook section from 1990, written by Giraud, emphasizes that Paradox was conceived of to give students their own space outside of administrative control and that it "represents what people in the community can produce if they really put their minds to it." Donations, support from the Physical Plant and Senate, and volunteers were all crucial parts of Paradox's founding and initial survival. The handbook also urges future Paradox managers to protect Paradox's autonomy as much as they can. 

In the early days, this café went through many names written on its chalkboard, such as the "Frisky Bean," "Risky Butthole," and "Einstein's Bong," before settling on the Paradox we know and love today. The early café served coffee and focused on events that brought the community together, such as an Indigenous musicians’ and comedians’ nightclub, thesis presentations, and the Spring Formal. Initially, Paradox lived where KRRC is now, and eventually migrated to its current location in the Student Union and opened a new location, Paradox Nu (aka Paradox Lost), in the Biology building in 2003. 

When interviewed about how Paradox became a tradition, Giraud theorized that Paradox has survived to the modern day because it started with enough structure to survive the four-year turnover inherent in a student-run college institution. Giraud described Paradox as a tradition with enough structure to survive, but enough flexibility for new students to add their own ideas. He and Magrath worked to found Paradox the year after they graduated, then handed Paradox to the student body after a year, at which point the café fell under more of the college's jurisdiction but still largely operated independently. He emphasized the importance of hiring a diverse group of students and bringing in new students every year, saying, "We even hired science majors!" (he was an English major). In the early days, Paradox managers chose their successors, which had the advantage of experience but the disadvantage of potential nepotism and stagnation. Later, Paradox manager Julia St. Lawrence '91 told the Quest that managers were voted in by the Paradox staff and trained by outgoing managers, but managers often encouraged hard workers to apply to the job. When St. Lawrence was manager, one of the other managers was a full-time student and one was taking a gap semester or year—Paradox manager is a very difficult job, because they would have to manage the money, fill in shifts when other students couldn't, and deal with staff issues when their coworkers were also often their friends. 

In the early 1990s, Paradox Café was run by St. Lawrence and Monica Lal '92. The café was coming out of a period of financial struggles, which St. Lawrence and Giraud both attributed to past employee theft. A safe was installed, and the café became more profitable by the early ‘90s. The café was also serving loose-leaf tea by this time. Like Giraud, St. Lawrence emphasized the importance of hiring a wide array of baristas, which she accomplished by covering the names on applications and hiring 50 employees who each worked short shifts. Paradox also hosted poetry slams and began selling baked goods made by students during this time.

The walls of the café were covered with photos of "Reed moments," and baristas chose mixtapes or played their own. The Student Union manager lived in an apartment over the café, and students often slept overnight in the SU. Students played a regular late night poker game, and at the end of the night Paradox handed out the last pot of coffee to whoever needed it, a tradition that would later go on to inspire the Stimulants Table in the early 2000s. St. Lawrence said, "For me, the most poignant part of the cafe was that it was a gathering place for community." Most students knew at least one Paradox worker, and Paradox workers made friends with whomever they worked their two-person shifts with. 

Throughout Paradox's history, an ongoing theme has been the tension between student autonomy and the need for some amount of administrative support. Giraud and the Paradox Handbook mentioned that early Paradox enjoyed general administrative support, but the founders were very wary of giving up any autonomy to the college since Paradox's existence as an independent student space is so important. St. Lawrence recalled that, in her years, the college handled the Paradox payroll, but mostly let them do their own thing. Paradox still hosted a Spring Formal at the time, and administrators met with Paradox managers to get assurance that alcohol wouldn't be served to minors and that virgin drinks would be available. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Paradox struggled with debt, and the ensuing difficulties increased that tension between autonomy and support in the period from 2020 to 2022.

Because of how quickly campus shut down at the start of the pandemic and the duration of the shutdown, Paradox managers came back to a huge mold issue in Paradox Nu in fall 2020, caused by a leaky espresso machine that could not be noticed or fixed due to the lockdown. They then spent the Fall 2020 semester cleaning, replacing furniture, and preparing to reopen the cafe with COVID safety protocols such as using disposable gloves and mugs. In spring 2022, Reed stopped subsidizing Paradox's deficit, which they had previously done in order to keep Paradox open as a student space, and Reed administrators requested that Senate get involved. This led to Paradox being listed in Funding Poll for the first time and receiving no funding. In other devastating news that year, a fake penis known affectionately as "Earl" went missing from the Paradox wall in March 2022, leading to a campaign of missing posters around campus. After a series of meetings with administrators and Senate, debates between Paradox's autonomy and proposed Senate assistance, and a few weeks of delay for administrative approval, Paradox fully reopened both of its locations on Monday, October 9, 2023, to the delight of the student body. Giraud told the Quest that Paradox has cycles of good years and bad years, and while it isn't always profitable, they always find a way to pull through, which has held true so far.

Today, Paradox has expanded its selection of coffee drinks, they sell cookies and baked goods, and the current managers continue the tradition of fostering community through hosting events. Some recent events include several open mic nights and a puppet show put on by the Sustainability Office, and Paradox has a series of events planned for Renn Fayre including karaoke, free drip coffee and tea on Friday, and a "Night Café." If you want to support this Reed tradition, stop by Paradox Olde in the Student Union or Paradox Nu in the Biology building for drinks, snacks, and good vibes!

We organized a 20th anniversary Paradox Cafe Managers reunion in 2007. We all signed our names on the back of the beam above the bar, but it’s since been painted over. - Matt Giraud '85