Before Starbucks, there was the late, great Daily Grind, where the specials included cheap coffee and friendly faces.
“It was the first coffee shop on campus, owned by a retired math professor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Lee,” recalls University of Delaware Professor Syed Shah (Ph.D. ’86, materials physics).
“I wrote practically all of my thesis there. Coffee was 50 cents with free refills in the beginning but went up to a quarter for fill-ups.
“This was 1980 to 1986. We were a group of graduate students, from math, computer science, materials science and nuclear engineering and you were sure to find at least one of us there at any time. You walk in and you hear Mrs. Lee say, ‘May I help you someone?’
“When I think of the most memorable places in C-U, Daily Grind always come at the top.”
