Despite being so close to campus, One World Café somehow manages to make you feel as if you’ve exited the Hopkins bubble and are instead just in any other neighborhood not dominated by a competitive academic institute. At one corner two women sit, engaged in intense conversation fit to grace some “We Can Do It” campaign poster promoting diversity: one of the women is Asian while the other is white and bounces a black toddler on her knee, her right hand alternating between taking notes and pressing a bottle of milk to the dozing child’s wet mouth. Another corner of the café is populated by professor types hunched over MacBooks with open books splayed around them. These “characters” could be easily found in the MSE or in Gilman but for the “One World Café” insignia on their coffee mugs and their longer, somewhat unruly facial hair. The occasional Hopkins student enters the scene, those bearing Greek-emblazoned sweatshirts somewhat more obtrusively than MICA-look-alike Writing Sems. The food comes out rapidly compared to One World’s 32nd Street counterpart, Carma’s Café. The two are remarkably similar though the food at One World adheres slightly more to the health food trend offering more vegan and vegetarian options. While the plates may differ, those bearing them do not; it is almost undeniable that several of One World’s current servers previously worked at Carma’s, and vice versa. They are a visible group, heavily inked, sporting skinny denim and tattered flannel as well as serious amounts of eyeliner. That being said, both the clientele of and servers for One World seem authentic and genuine; maybe it’s the giant posters of gorillas or the children pressed against the glass case of desserts, whatever it is, One World exudes that easy disregard that Urban Outfitters-attired crowds seem to be seeking.
Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 22, 2024
