Forget sugar - staying power would sweeten this cup of joe

CUSTOMERS HAVE trailed Rob Loomis asking what he's going to do with his Borjo coffee shop near Old Dominion University.

A giant bookstore opened last month right across the street from his moderately sized, modestly popular coffeehouse, and Loomis was given the first right of refusal to move there and serve joe among the baby blue Monarch sweatshirts and MTV travel books.

If he stayed in his own shop at 45th Street and Monarch Way, he would likely have to watch from behind his register, through his giant windows, as people walked out of the bookstore with coffee cups not labeled Borjo. The competition would probably come from bigger brands. Maybe even Starbucks, people whispered.

If he moved, it arguably would change the very nature of the business he has spent the last three years building, sometimes without drawing a salary for all his work. He would, in a sense, be selling out the community he created - except selling out implies the guarantee of more money. The new location would come with no such promises.

So since the plans for the bookstore first circulated, Loomis has wrestled with the dilemma, simply described by The Clash as "Should I stay or should I go?" But this one has ramifications for Norfolk's coffee-noscenti.

When Loomis moved into the University Village three years ago under the Port City Java franchise, his place was supposed to be the only coffeehouse in the retail shops. It was one of only a few shops or restaurants in the plaza at all; as a result, the stores' finances suffered.

Then came news of the big bookstore. Oddly enough, the University Village Bookstore is technically not part of the University Village retail shops. Any hopes for exclusivity were out.

But Borjo went on.

Gift cards there are jokingly sold up to $1 million denominations. Free biscotti is available for dogs and free wifi is available for the slow-sipping, laptop-toting lurkers. There's a recycling container for the coffee sleeves of the environmentally conscious.

Over time, regular customers dripped in, maybe a couple dozen of them, some of whom Loomis has become friends with.

As we sat for almost an hour talking earlier this week, people said goodbye to him personally as they left, or said hi as they walked in. His mom stopped by.

Slowly, he and his business partner and the ODU students working behind the counter scratched their way to breaking even.

But a decision was brewing.

At times, Loomis was set to leave the space, convinced the competition would smother him.

Then he would decide he wanted to stay. He wanted to continue to have people from the community play live music. Nothing extravagant - just a guitar, maybe a drum, no amps.

He wanted to try to sell beer and wine.

"There's only so many lattes you can drink watching a guy play guitar." And that wouldn't fly in the bookstore.

Everyone had an opinion. When he was leaning toward staying, some of the customers told him, "Big mistake. Starbucks is going to kill you," he said. And it's true, a 20 percent drop in customers would create serious questions about Borjo's viability.

When he was leaning toward leaving, customers worried about whether it would have the same community feel.

Finally, last Friday, Loomis and his partner sent in the paperwork turning down the bookstore. They're staying.

"I didn't want to be a kiosk in a bookstore. If you're going to create a neighborhood living room - and that's what I was interested in doing - I don't think you can do that if you live in someone else's house."

So more than likely Loomis will watch as a coffeehouse opens across the street. A few blocks west, just over Hampton Boulevard, a Starbucks is based in ODU's Webb Center. A few blocks south is a McDonalds, which announced Monday it would focus more on gourmet coffee.

Meanwhile, the university is excited about his new ideas, especially for the over-25 crowd.

"I feel delighted," Loomis said, now that the decision has been made. "I was certain I'd be full of dread. I'm not nervous about it. We might fail as a business, but that was always in the cards. But I'd rather fail here than there."

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com