Smoking is pretty much banned everywhere, so that's not a surprise, but having a place where people can smoke (ie not the front or an unguarded back stoop where people can bail on their tabs when they've had a few beers and are done) is a boon, because you know well enough that cigarettes and coffee are as good a pair as a drink and a cigarette. +1 to the general idea of having nice-looking help, be smooth about it and don't get sued for discrimination, and it also goes both ways - keep just as many good looking men on staff as women, if not more, at least for your evening shift. I'd go as far as to stalk the facebooks of potential hires if possible, make sure that they have tons of friends and a lot of social activity going on in their lives - that is obviously going to help business. As far as food goes - if the location is that good you should rise to the occasion, really own something within the vicinity and become a landmark. I'm sure a lot of places have the regular soups, salads, sandwiches - you have those too, but what else? People in college towns are looking for filling and cheap without looking too cheap (what is cheap by non-fast food standards in America now? $15 with a soft drink, out the door?), sell them a lot of bread and cheap proteins. Get somebody to make you good bread, have it for your sandwiches, and then serve finger food plates like a charcuterie plate (with a little blob of pate or rillettes, salami, a cured ham like jamon or prosciutto, mortadella, etc) a cheese plate (at least 5 little bits) like you said, vegetables a la grecque like a pickle assortment you can make in-house, maybe combine all three for one smaller plate under ten bucks or something... -you can have bagna cauda, etc, and get like those Le Creuset fondue sets and serve the veggies over ice, and the sauce over heat - double duty the fondue sets and have real fondue, or (more likely) dessert fondue as well. That kind of stuff where there's customer interaction with their food is 'fun' and if it's sweet, serves a niche. Desserts are entirely uncatered to in America. Well, tons of stuff is, but desserts especially. Never met a woman who doesn't like looking at a fridge case of little fruit tarts or patisserie, so even if you're not getting people's business for dinner, perhaps you could try to get their business for after their dinner. Be realistic and don't go by styleforum standards for any of this stuff, because none of your customers will - stay within a competitive range on food and drink pricing, and then just have a 'top shelf' menu on the side if you aspire to having the better things. Coffee and wi-fi is nice but you should change the mood of the place as the day goes on each day, from light coffee to lunch, to light afternoon/end of class relaxing, to early evening snacks/early drinkers, dinner/date/meetings, late night drinks, in order to keep people from staying too long and wasting your space.
