A place to chat, drink?and log in

Bucks County 'cybercafe' to open Bucks County Coffee Company patrons will soon have a new way of getting wired. When the store opens its second campus location at 40th and Locust streets, it will feature six computers with Internet access. Barry Swift, manager at the new location, projected that the store will open toward the end of this month. The expected fee for accessing the Internet is $3 per hour, according to Swift. And an extra charge may be added for customers who want to download programs to disk, explained Scott Patton, manager of the Bucks County at 3430 Sansom St. The restaurant will probably use Macintosh computers and Netscape as its World Wide Web browser software, Swift said. Even though many students have free access to the Internet from their dorms and off-campus homes, Swift said he expects the "cybercafe" to be utilized heavily. "A lot of people don't have access [to the Internet] in West Philadelphia," he said. "Also, we can offer a different place for students to play with it." Internet users will be able to access anything on the World Wide Web through the computers, including tourist information, business news and personal home pages. "We are looking for [employees] with computer experience," Swift explained. "But we are first and foremost a food service organization." Bucks County Coffee Company's first cybercafe was introduced at its Princeton, N.J. establishment earlier this month. "The cybercafe in Princeton is doing real well," Patton said. The new Bucks County also features a small stage on which local bands may be featured. Swift said short plays can be performed. "I want to feature more eclectic entertainment than is commonly available in a coffee house," he said. "We are going for a younger, odder vibe than the other Bucks County stores. We'll play whatever happens to float our boat at the moment."

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