Campus & Community / News

South University coffee shop looking for new jolt

University Groundz, an out-of-the-way coffee shop south of campus, has closed its doors after 15 months, an apparent victim of the bumps and grinds of grounds.

Still, the shop on South University Boulevard may not have served up its last cup of joe just yet. Negotiations are under way to reopen the store under one of two potential owners, with talks possibly resolved as soon as early May, according to Angelina Solano, co-owner with husband, Tony Aranjo, and her father, David Solano.

Reopening would be good news for students such as Danielle Norris, a sophomore media studies major accustomed to dropping in for a mocha after her 8 a.m. class in DU’s mass comm building.

“It was nice because it had a mom-and-pop feel about it,” Norris says. “It had charm.”

Norris says the location of University Groundz was a problem for many DU students, who either didn’t know about it or plodded north for a java fix at Starbucks or the Daniels Commons.

Norris speculated that pulling students away from those popular haunts to visit University Groundz, just south of the Pioneer sports bar, would take a big lure — like a breakfast place.

Solano endorsed the idea, saying quite a few customers came in looking for more than the breakfast burritos and pastries the shop routinely sold.

But landlord and building owner Richard Bettinger (BA ’58), whose name has graced the Bettinger Photography shops next door since 1985, is doubtful. He says the space can’t easily or inexpensively be altered to make a breakfast joint work. Plus, it’s only 800 square feet. “It wouldn’t be very practical,” he says of the 1960s-vintage building he has owned for five years.

In addition to University Groundz, the one-story brick fourplex at 2417-2423 S. University Blvd. is home to A-Pal, an office services company; Floating Lotus Yoga; and Bliss Body Waxing.

“We gave it a good try,” Solano says ruefully. “Now we have experience. We learned a lot and made a lot of good friends along the way.”

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