My Friends (and Yours) at 365 Express

K.A. Dilday

Who among us remembers schoolhouse rock, and the bon mots it provided American children while their parents were fast asleep? As one choice line goes: “When your get up and go just got up and went, you hanker for a hunk of cheese.”

Well, we were kids then, and the songwriters were trying to prevent us from discovering the truth. The world is driven not by cheese, but by caffeine and sugar. These stimulants help propel adults the world over into their workday or night—or, here at the Graduate Center, into a paper or a class. And the 365 Express, located on the first floor of the building, is the GC’s own propelling station. The Express opens every morning at eight and closes at six thirty. It is staffed by four women and one man, whose backgrounds are as varied as the teachers and students they serve coffee to. Meet the staff of the 365 Express: the people who give you that get up and go.

None of the staff has worked at the Express for very long. Two staffers came after the September 11 attacks damaged the cafeteria where they worked. One came from New York’s Hotel Management School, and another answered a newspaper advertisement. One is foreign born, while the other four were born here in America.

The first shift at the Express arrives at seven to prepare for an eight o’clock opening. If you come bright and early at eight, the two women you see behind the counter are Irina and Kenya. Kenya Banks is a Brooklyn native, who worked in the cafeteria at the World Financial Center until September 11, 2001. She was at work when the planes hit the World Trade Center, which was also the first birthday of her child. They were evacuated and Kenya never went back. The cafeteria closed in the wake of the attacks, and two weeks later Kenya started work at the Express.

Irina Borovitskoya shares morning duty with Kenya. Irina moved to the United States from the Ukraine in 1997. Before long, she began studies at the New York Food and Hotel Management School on 14th Street, and began work at the Express after her graduation in 2002.

Rosa Duran works the late shift at the café. Rosa is of Ecuadorian and Cuban descent and was born in New York. A true New York native, she has a deep love for the city. A brief stint in Miami working at Miami-Dade Honey Baked Hams, along with a few rounds of window-rattling hurricanes were enough to bring her back to New York. After her return to the city she answered a job advertisement and soon became a part of the 365 Express family.

While the other staffers mainly stay in the Express, Teresa runs back and forth between the commons and the cafe. You’ll see her working the register during the lunch rush in the upstairs commons, and in the afternoon at the Express with scarcely a moment in between. Obviously she can fly, and should be working in the circus as a trapeze artist.

Luis Reyes is the go-to-man for both the Express and the cafeteria. Skim milk runs out, he brings more; visiting lush drinks all of the tiny bottles of wine, he restocks. Luis is a native of New York, and, more important, my neighbor in Hamilton Heights.

So every morning when you go in to get your coffee, be sure to say hello to Irina, Kenya, Luis, Rosa and Teresa. You know them by now: Irina’s the tall blonde, ponytailed Rosa writes poetry, Kenya is always trying out a new hairstyle, Teresa flies, and Luis, well he’s the testosterone at the estrogen party.

Without them to provide you with an electrifying jolt of caffeine and sugar—and I know this next part is hard to believe, but I’ll go out on a limb—you just might not be able to stay awake during those scintillating Graduate Center classes.