Tulla's Coffee Grinder

Tulla’s Coffee Grinder, - 30 Dunster Street

Tulla’s Coffee Grinder was opened in 1955 by owner Tulla Cook and soon became a meeting place for Harvard students, especially those interested in folk music (individual members of the Charles River Valley Boys played in Tulla’s before officially forming a group). According to Eric Von Scmidt and Jim Rooney's book: Baby Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Music Years: "In the beginning there was Tulla's Coffee Grinder. That was it for coffee houses in Cambridge, circa 1957. Tulla's was one small totally unpretentious room. It was crammed with small tables, many chairs, and the interior was on a level several feet lower than the side walk outside...A talented young Harvard Student, Dick Zaffron, sometimes played flamenco or classical guitar, but the music was not meant to intrude on the chess players, or interrupt the various conversations buzzing through the dim room. Classical records added to the ambience and cut down on the overhead. Tulla's was soon to become the spawning ground for a lot of the Cambridge pickers, but it never did become a music club." However, according to Betsy Siggins, it hosted informal performances by the likes of Joan Baez and Eric von Schmidt, and it was Baez’s Tulla’s performance that cinched her booking at Club 47, becoming the first folk performer at the then jazz coffeehouse.