Overview:
Weathervane Cafe and two Pablo's Coffee locations have no Wi-Fi because they are community-oriented spaces designed for conversation.
Remote workers have taken over local cafes in the Mile High City and are now being met with pushback. Weathervane Cafe, in City Park West, and Pablo’s Coffee, off 6th Avenue, are two of the cafes that have no Wi-Fi for their customers.
”We definitely had Wi-Fi when we first opened,” said Lindsey Dalton, owner of Weathervane. “I’m happy that we had Wi-Fi because it does attract a certain type of customer.”
Alex and Lindsey Dalton, a husband-and-wife duo, opened Weathervane Cafe in 2012 with the goal of creating a quaint, peaceful and homey environment in the heart of Denver’s bustling city. Dalton stated that when first opening, having customers come in and do their work on their laptops was great.
“ When you have no customers, when you’re first open, any customer is like amazing,” Dalton said. “And I’m so grateful for that. I’m grateful that people hung out with us all day long.”
However, things shifted for Weathervane during the COVID-19 pandemic. With enclosed spaces like restaurants and cafes having to minimize the capacity of diners, Dalton stated that it didn’t make sense to have one person stare at their laptop while taking up seating for other potential customers.
“ I don’t want that small percentage of people just here being on their laptops,” Dalton said.
Weathervane has stuck to its guns, following the pandemic, and no longer offers Wi-Fi in their cafe.
“ We want to talk to people and we want people to talk and be laughing,” Dalton said. “You know, it was after a time when we were all stuck inside, all stuck on the computer, on our phones and [we] never brought it back.”
Since the Wi-Fi ban, she has been faced with a few awkward encounters. “ There’s no way to enforce it that isn’t kind of grueling social confrontations with people,” she said.
After a few Yelp reviews were posted stating the lack of internet access at the cafe, Dalton said she and her staff saw an influx of customers.
“ There’s a certain group of people who are seeking that out as well,” Dalton said. “And it just makes it more obvious like that [they think], ‘Oh, this is for me.’”
Unlike Weathervane, which started off as an internet-friendly cafe, Pablo’s Coffee has always been a Wi-Fi-free establishment in two out of the three of its locations.
Pablo’s Coffee, founded in 1995, began in the Denver Convention Center before opening a new location in 2001 on 6th Ave., followed by a second location in Capitol Hill and a third on East Colfax. Emily Moyer, a barista who has worked at the 6th Ave. location for a little over 10 years, explained the lack of internet at her location.
“ We just have never offered it, and we’ve never needed to offer it,” Moyer said. “It would not benefit us financially to offer it.”
Pablo’s is not the typical coffee shop but rather more akin to a pub, with loud, vibrant music and contagious laughter from customers. Though Pablo’s has no objections to customers bringing their own personal hotspot into the cafe, they advise that it may not be appropriate for focus.
“ I think it’s probably not the best place for people to come and work because it is so noisy,” Moyer said. “ There’s not really a place where you can get away from people for sure.”
Moyer has come to find Pablo’s to be like a second home for not only herself but her regulars as well.
“ So many people come in to grab a drink, sit down, talk to their friends and then they expect to be in an environment where that is happening,” she said. “So we never want to create a space where people couldn’t have a conversation.”
Moyer stated that Pablo’s is meant to feel like a vibrant room filled with friends, laughter and conversation, and if they began to offer Wi-Fi, it may take away from that experience.
“ A lot of people come here to talk to friends. Like you can see, like literally every table, there’s people talking to each other,” Moyer said. “I feel like our regulars would riot if we started offering Wi-Fi.”
However, Pablo’s does offer complimentary Wi-FI at their newest and largest location in East Colfax. With the additional square footage, Moyer said having internet access at the new location made more sense compared to the smaller, cozy locations in Capitol Hill.
When asked if other cafes should follow suit and stop offering Wi-Fi, both companies agreed that the decision should be made on an individual basis.
“ Every space should do what’s best for them as a business,” Moyer said. “But I think, it’s also to consider that coffee shops have historically been a place for people from different backgrounds, societal hierarchies, and different levels to come meet with each other … Coffee shops provide this really important space for people to meet and for people to talk in a safe space.”