Do you love coffee? Then you probably have seen her before. Naomi Peirce ‘11 is a member of the Bistro 255 team, as her contribution of bringing the Maple Syrup Spice for the March special. Peirce joined the Bistro two months after it opened in 2014.
Prior to working in Bistro, Peirce was a barista at Gusto’s Café. Originally from New Hampshire, Peirce has been a part of the Gordon College community for a long time. “My oldest sister [who graduated in 2001] helped the original coffee house called the Claymore Café,” said Peirce.
Claymore Cafe sold coffee in the building where KOSC now stands and then was moved to the Chase Residential Hall’s basement and rebranded to be called Claymore Lounge. The Cafe embodied an atmosphere similar to that of Late Night in Lane, rather than the typical afternoon coffee shop, mentioned Peirce.
After the Claymore Café closed in 2008, Chester’s Place and Tavern arrived. Chester’s is named after Gordon College’s donors, Dale and Sarah Ann Fowler’s cat. Soon after the establishment, many students, including Peirce, would joke about the cat-inspired name.
“I guess not many people would know that today.” commented Peirce as she laughed.
The college was a different world at the time that Peirce was a student. She commented on the fact that there was dead silence in the reference rooms and when people wanted to do a group study, they took over one of the classrooms. “People would bite your head off” if you were to make a sound, said Peirce.
In addition to the difference in atmosphere, Peirce explained how the Wi-Fi when she was enrolled at the College was difficult to use. She said, “We carried an Ethernet around. Wi-Fi was spotty, and not available on the whole campus. It was the strongest in each dorm’s lounge, so it was better to live closer to there.”
As a Communications major, she took many storytelling and editing classes. She enjoyed Gordon’s unique experience, engaging in activities such as La Vida, writing for the Tartan and taking a lot of writing classes. She also enjoyed quality friendships. When her time as a student came to an end, she realized that “the safety of the family is still there, but the bubble of Gordon is gone.”
In four years, she observed that the Bistro is becoming part of so many people’s life. So many things in Gordon have changed since she was a student.
Peirce said, “New people come and go, but some things never change”.
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