FEATURE STORY — January/February 2008

A Taste of Life

Arshad “Sony” Javid has combined his interests in coffee and philosophy into a successful local coffee shop chain, Café Descartes. Not bad for a guy who sold his first cup of coffee from a cart in front of the Newman Catholic Student Center

By Greg Holden
Photography By Lloyd Degrane

To survive in the highly competitive world of retail food services, you need a product with a unique trait, one that will differentiate it in the minds and taste buds of consumers.

Take Kentucky Fried Chicken as an example. Its chicken batter features 11 herbs and spices. Or White Castle. Its steam-grilled, square-shaped hamburgers are so distinctive, they’ve entered American folklore.

For Arshad “Sony” Javid CBA ’88, founder and owner of Chicago-based Café Descartes coffee shops, the “franchise” product is his oatmeal latte, a beverage that Metromix. com calls a “two-for-one treat comprised of a double-shot of espresso, steamed milk and a bottom filled with oatmeal, almonds, blueberries, raisins and honey.”

“Oatmeal has lots of fiber and is good for your heart,” says Javid, reflecting on the origins of his trademark drink. “I’m also addicted to coffee.” As for the particular mixology, he says, “One day I was in the drugstore and bought a pack of oatmeal and it just came to me that I could mix them together.”

But just as oatmeal and coffee don’t logically seem to go together, the same can be said of the academic subjects he studied at UIC: finance and philosophy. “Studying finance gave me the tools I needed to be a good businessman, but philosophy motivated me to do what I really wanted to do with my life,” he explains.

Javid has a lifelong love of philosophy, and when he came to the United States, he immersed himself in the works of philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre and René Descartes, the latter of whom he named his business after. Javid has even modified Descartes’ most famous maxim, “I think, therefore I am,” for his company’s slogan: “I drink, therefore I am.” Javid’s homage to notable philosophers goes further; he uses photos and paintings of his favorite philosophers to decorate the walls of his storefront locations on Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive and in Lincoln Square and Rogers Park (he also operates three coffee carts on UIC’s East Campus). At the Michigan Avenue store, for example, one wall is decorated with photos of Western philosophers Sartre, Rousseau, Aristotle and Fredrich Nietzsche. Another features Persian philosophers, writers and poets such as Rafez, Rumi, Sadi and Omar Khayyam.

Bedtime stories and cafE life

Exposure to great thinkers was an integral part of Javid’s life from his earliest years. He recalls his parents reading him bedtime stories from Sadi, Rumi and Allama Muhammad Labal.

At the same time, Javid received an education in entrepreneurship at the knee of his father, who not only had business interests in real estate and transportation, but also managed farms. Javid, 51, was one of 10 children—all of whom eventually went into business for themselves. “My father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather were all businessmen,” he says. “My brothers and sisters and I learned how to run a business from them.”

Café life was also an important part of Javid’s formative years while he was growing up in Faisalabad, Pakistan (it’s also where he acquired his nickname “Sony”). “Faisalabad, which used to be called Lyallapur, was a good city. People liked to go to the café and liked to talk about philosophy, music, politics and poetry,” he says. “The coffee shops and tea houses I went to were very popular,” and this strongly influenced me “when I thought about starting my own business. Chai houses, in particular, were very big.” Years later, when he traveled through Europe, Asia, and Central and South America, Javid always made it a point to visit every coffee shop he could find.

In 1979, Javid left his family and emigrated to the United States “to go to school, to work and to get a better life,” he says. Javid originally moved to Chicago, where he took English as a second language at UIC. Two years later, he relocated to Seattle where he enrolled at a local community college and the University of Washington. During this time, he worked for the then-upstart Starbucks, learning the business.

In 1985, he moved back to Chicago and re-enrolled at UIC, studying business and philosophy. “I had already studied liberal arts at the college level in Pakistan and was excited to be able to continue that work here,” says Javid.

Besides its large Pakistani community, Chicago had other advantages for Javid. “I like being in a big city, and like Chicago’s culture,” he explains. “New York City is too big, and there are too many people. Here in Chicago, you can be with people or you can be alone.”

The $18,000 coffee cart

Javid’s original idea was to sell espresso downtown, near the Board of Trade where he worked as a clerk. But he was a little ahead of his time, and no one in 1992 had a vision of how popular gourmet coffee would become. “I went from building to building in downtown Chicago, asking people if I could set up my coffee cart in the lobby,” he explains. “They all thought I was goofy, talking nonsense.”

However, Javid’s luck changed course when he met Father Patrick Marshall, director of the Newman Catholic Student Center at UIC.

At the time, Father Marshall, who had been on campus for only a few weeks when he met Javid, was trying to attract more students to the Newman Center by offering a delicacy of another sort—$2 hot dog lunches. “Javid told me, ‘I’d like to start a coffee business. I figure if I could start it in God’s house, it could work,’” recalls Father Marshall. “We talked a while about what his ideas were, and I finally said OK.”

Javid rented a spot in front of the Center for $250 a month and then had a cart built from which he could make and sell quality espresso. But it wasn’t just any cart—it was equipped with a grinder and an espresso machine, as well as plumbing and electrical systems. “I designed it myself,” Javid says proudly. “It cost me $18,000.”

Father Marshall was shocked when he first saw Javid’s cart next to the Center’s hotdog stand. “‘This is a big cart,’ he said to me,” recalls Javid. “But selling coffee out of that cart taught me how to do business and be hard working. I got excited about having students come to buy my coffee, and Father Marshall was happy that they also got to know the Newman Center.

“I really appreciate the University giving me the opportunity to start my business,” continues Javid. “President James Stukel MS ’63 ENG UIUC, PHD ’68 ENG UIUC bought coffee from me. He told me he wanted to support UIC alumni and give them a chance to be a success.”

Javid’s cart also drew plenty of customers from UIC’s faculty. Among them was Michael Lieber, professor emeritus, Department of Anthropology, a self-described coffee addict who was delighted to find a place on campus where he could find a “decent cup of coffee.”

Javid’s constant manipulation of his prices caught the attention of another frequent faculty customer, Evelyn Lehrer, professor, Department of Economics. “In the beginning, he changed the price of his coffee frequently, and I would tell students in my “Principles of Economics” course that I had a sense he was trying to determine the price elasticity or demand for his coffee—in other words, how responsive his customers were to price changes,” she explains.

A customer focus

Javid’s favorite philosopher Descartes also said: “To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.” And it’s clear what Javid is thinking about, even in the midst of a busy work day and a conversation. He abruptly stops our interview to get up and retrieve a piece of notepaper that a female customer has unknowingly dropped on the floor. Soon, he is holding a conversation with the woman and her companion, asking where they are from.

No sooner has our conversation resumed than Javid again stops talking and turns away. “Excuse me, guys,” he says to his employees, motioning them to attend to a customer waiting at the counter.

Such attention to his customers may have more to do with his continued success than his insistence on roasting his own coffee, offering unique drinks (besides the oatmeal latte, he serves gelato and a latte concoction that resembles a milk shake) or using ceramic coffee cups rather than paper ones. Alma Pugh, a frequent customer to the Café Descartes on Michigan Avenue, says, “I am a retired nurse. I know when people are being sincere and taking an interest in you, and they really do here.”

Where intellectuals gather

Never one to shy away from dreaming big, Javid claims he is not intimidated by competition from chains like Starbucks.

“Those big guys [like Starbucks] have a lot of money, and they can find better locations and invest in marketing,” says Javid. “I do everything on my own on a small business level, so I have to [develop] a strategy and a system. I keep going on a different road, so I can build the Café Descartes concept and associate it with the city of Chicago.”

Javid plans to create a chain of 10 stores in the next five years, and maybe up to 50, eventually. Moreover, he emphasizes that each will be a gathering place for intellectuals. “People like good coffee houses where they can have good discussions with their friends,” says Javid. To that end, he’s made his coffee shops forums for thought and discussion and often invites UIC philosophy and political science faculty to give talks. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, he sought to promote greater understanding of Islam by hosting discussion groups at his café in Rogers Park.

“I’m doing what I really wanted to do in life,” he says, reflecting on both his accomplishments and the means. “If this was not my passion and I hadn’t been to coffee houses around the world, I wouldn’t have designed my places with Rumi and Descartes on the walls.