Meet me at Wiggle Ground

If Kenyon had an official phrase book, one of the most important entries would be "Meet me at Wiggle Ground." That’s actually Wiggin Street, for Wiggin Street Coffee, and you’ll have to ask a student about the wiggle AND THE GROUND. Occupying Gambier’s busiest intersection—and of course “busy” is a relative term in the village—the coffee house offers a full array of coffee creations, teas, and cold drinks, plus bagels, pastries, cookies, soups, and light sandwiches. But here, community is as vital as caffeine. This is the place where friends meet for a snack, professors have long talks with students, and classes sometimes gather to elucidate texts between sips. Day or night, the booths and tables are occupied by people chatting, reading, writing, browsing through a newspaper, spending quality time with their laptops, or just taking a quiet break.

Coffee house factoid: Mark and David Forman, the father-and-son team that runs Wiggin Street, care about sustainability. They travel to Central and South America, working with importers so that they can trace their beans to individual farmers.