Brookline Cafe's Decision To Shut Off Wi-Fi Gets Rave Reviews

BROOKLINE, MA — Talia Glass admits she was apprehensive about hitting the off switch on the public wireless service in Allium Market and Café. The Coolidge Corner shop's owner said she wants to make as many of her customers happy as possible, and that there were sleepless nights and much anxiety in advance of Friday's termination of the Wi-Fi that had turned her friendly boutique restaurant into tables full of computer screens and silence.

It was not the atmosphere she envisioned when she opened Allium a year-and-a-half ago as "a place to sell good food that honors hard-working farmers near and far." It was also costing potential customers in the cozy, 19-seat space as students and remote workers turned a $3 cup of coffee into a three-hour stay.

"I would get messages from people taking pictures of people at every seat in the café on their laptops and they're telling me that they tried to get lunch here and could not," Glass said. "We like to be treated as a restaurant that has great food. You would not go into a good restaurant, order a piece of bread and sit there for five hours."

Still, convincing some customers who had spent the past 18 months sipping cappuccinos with their free wireless service to order meals and engage with each other was something Glass was worried might be a chore. On the whole, however, she said the move has been embraced.

"The immediate reaction has been overwhelmingly positive," she told Patch on Wednesday, five days after first wireless-free lunch. "I've gotten emails from people who found our address on the website telling me that they are in Maine, but they heard about the hard choice we made on their daughter's Instagram, and they want to come visit when they are in the Boston area. We've had a few people upset and confused when they come in, but then we have a conversation with them about why we're doing it. We don't want to lose them as customers, but we tell them that we had to make a decision for the sustainability of our business."

A post on the café's Facebook page at 1:52 a.m. on Friday announced the decision. As of Wednesday, all 45 comments on the post were positive.

"I totally support this!" Lisa Nowak Wilkins wrote. "I often walk by with my kids and want to come in, but I can see from outside that there is no place to sit because of people camped out with laptops. I look forward to many, many, many handpies with my kiddos!!"

"Thank you so much for this," Masha Leuner posted. "It was so frustrating to have the majority of tables taken by people sitting on their laptops and no room for people to eat."

Glass said that each time she does get a negative response, she briefly gets down. But then she realizes that 95 percent of the reactions have been in favor of shutting off the wireless. For now, at least, laptops are not banned as customers who have access to a Wi-Fi hot spot can use them.

She said she is trying to work with those used to doing their work through public wireless at the shop through trying to convince them to use their laptops at the nearby Brookline Public Library, and then offering a discount to customers who show a library card.

In an effort to return the focus of the café to the meals, Glass has hired Marty Fay as her new chef, and hopes now more people will have more room to sit and enjoy his creations.

"We looked at all the food we actually sell, and all the work we put into our food, but if we're not selling it because there are not enough open seats for people to come in and eat then there is no reason to have it," she said. "A bunch of people with their heads buried in their laptops has nothing to do with community – and little to do with food."

Previously:

• Allium Market: Now Open In Coolidge Corner
• Allium Market To Bring A Specialty Grocer Back To Coolidge Corner
• Coolidge Corner: What's Empty, What's New, What's Coming ... - Patch