Page One

ALBANY – Peter Waugh, who’ll be a high school senior in September, walked into Café Eclectica on Solano Avenue Wednesday evening to find out what all the talk is about. 

The café that opened three weeks ago in the former McManus café and Pub, at 1309 Solano Ave. in Albany, is a volunteer-run establishment that aims to be the place for local teen-agers to gather. 

Waugh, a student at Albany High School and a bass guitar player, heard that the café “is a new place to hang out operated by high school students.” He joked that he would like to perform if he could get prime time. 

Still in its brewing stage, the budding café decorated with students’ paintings awaits a county health permit before it can serve fresh food, but future menus include coffee, soft drinks, pizza, soup and salads. 

The real main dish is Eclectica’s role as a youth center, a new recipe for the old-time hangouts like pizza parlors and drug stores. As its name suggests, Eclectica plans to offer a little bit of everything for young people, who are partners in planning the bill of fare. 

Eclectica is the product of parents and students who combined forces to find a space for teen-agers to meet, eat, sing, dance, listen to music, play video games, learn job skills or just hang out. 

Molly Mitchell, a founding parent, said “teen-agers need a place to gather. They’re underserved and not respected enough to get their own venue.” 

Allan Maris, chairman of the Albany Youth Task Force, said “there’s no other place like this in Albany.” Kids can go to adult cafés, he said, but they’re on the periphery in those coffeehouses. 

In Eclectica, he said, the students run the business with adult support, but the kids “have a lot of control.” Consensus is the bottom line in decision-making, he said. 

“We hope to be profitable,” said Maris. “What I’ve seen so far is not unusual for building a business. Kids have started to come here.” 

The café is a program of Community Learning Services, a nonprofit organization based in Albany with a mission to support schools and promote environmental education. Its planning committee is composed of eight teen-agers and the same number of adults. 

The café is currently open from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. 

“We wanted to open it before school was out,” said Sandy Bredt, assistant director of Community Learning Services. “We wanted to get the energy going and see if we can expand from there. We didn’t want to get too ambitious and have to pull back. We’re going to slowly build weekend business.” 

She said Eclectica already has held a live music performance. Bredt noted that the café occupies a space zoned for retail businesses, but the city informed them they would not need a conditional use permit as they had expected. 

For the performance, she said, police came and found there were no complaints from neighbors about noise, but in the planning to talk to the neighbors to let them know what they would be doing at the café, the students gained a valuable learning experience. 

“The kids brainstormed what kinds of questions the neighbors would have,” said Bredt. It helped them understand how businesses deal with government requirements. 

“This is not just a party place. We have procedures here.” 

Establishing a “green” business also is a priority for Eclectica. Operating in an environmentally friendly manner is part of the educational process for the young people who work and visit the café. 

Bredt said they will use cloth napkins, chinaware and flatware, and a compost bin for food scraps. Other green ideas include a ceiling fan to circulate air, non-toxic paint for the walls, and in terms of food on the menu, there will be no processed cheese. 

The café received $8,000 in start-up funding from the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and will receive another grant of $6,000 from the county. 

Bredt said $6,000 was raised from people in the community, including Berkeley families, and Eclectica continues to seek donations from the community.