When Judy Wang was 21, she decided not to go to college.

So her parents bought her a coffee shop to manage instead.

“For the first two years, I worked really hard - I didn’t go out at all,” Wang, 25, says during a work break at 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Blue Note Coffee Café, 623 E. Grand River Ave.

These days, Wang works trips to parties, bars and other cities into her schedule. She owns Blue Note and works from 5 p.m. to midnight nearly every day, including Saturdays and Sundays.

Business is slow from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Wang says.

“We just chill out,” she says. “Friends come by and we hang out.”

Having a few hours of downtime was beneficial to Wang tonight, as she is sick. She took naps in a back room between orders.

Wang is still a little dazed - and tired - as she sits outside sipping coffee.

“(Coffee) doesn’t even do anything to me anymore,” she says. “I’ve been drinking it for so long, I don’t even feel the caffeine.”

Wang greets customers as they enter the shop, which is now bustling with customers. Meeting new people is one of the job’s perks, she says.

“You work at a coffee shop, you socialize,” she says as she surveys the shop. “You get to know a lot of people.

“Of the new friends I have made over the past couple years, most of them I met here.”

Her friend walks up and hands her a record he bought in Detroit.. He enters the store with a handful of records he purchased.

Wang has been collecting hip-hop, techno and jazz records since she became interested in these types of music a year and a half ago. She plays the records at the shop, where she often spins music.

“I kind of keep it low so it doesn’t offend people who are studying,” she says. “When we close, we’re probably going to blast it.”

On the weekends, Blue Note often hosts local bands and DJs who play alternative music.

“We try to provide different entertainment, more diverse stuff,” Wang says as she heads inside to listen to the records. “I just feel this town is very conservative.”

Blue Note employee Keith Cha, a biochemistry senior, helps out with the store’s music.

“A lot of times when there’s not a lot going on, we play records or listen to CDs,” he says.

Cha often spins records at the shop.

“When it slows down, Keith jumps on the table and starts spinning,” Wang says as she looks around the counter to make sure customers are being helped.

From 8 p.m. to midnight during the week, there are usually three workers because this is the busiest time.

“Hey, Keith, can you come help me out?” Wang says as she rings up a large vanilla cappuccino. She usually rings up the orders and Cha makes the coffee, or vice versa.

Blue Note has a machine that makes the different kinds of coffee, including espresso, cappuccino, mocha.

“We just push the button,” Wang says. “We add the caramel, syrups and other flavorings ourselves.”

She orders most of the coffees, usually every two weeks.

“We try to keep it fresh - it can’t be sitting around,” she says.

Wang also bakes muffins, scones, brownies and cookies to sell at the store. She does this some mornings. Other days, she goes to Detroit to buy records for her collection.

Her brother and his wife run the store during the day, and he takes care of the paperwork.

“Our clientele is mostly students,” Wang says. “In the morning, we sometimes get professors, but at night it’s usually students.”

“Students on campus are more into the sweet coffees, like dessert coffees. Most people are into the drinks with all the flavorings,” she says as she rings up a large strawberry kiwi beverage for an MSU student.

During the summer, Wang reads magazines to come up with new flavors for the store. She also adds coffees she tries during her travels around the country.

Most of the pictures on the shop’s walls come from Wang’s travels as well.

She points to a cluster of five photographs. “I like those best. I got them in Miami.”

“Why is there no record on?” Wang asks, beginning a new disc.

“I’d like a double decaf slim vanilla and a double caramel,” a customer orders.

Wang says she doesn’t mind special orders “unless people go to extremes.”

“When I go out I want stuff my way, so I understand,” she says.

Her friend brings in a roll of photographs from a weekend trip to Ludington. There are no customers to wait on, so Wang rushes to see the pictures.

“On the weekends I go out of town a lot,” she says. “I’ll drive to Toronto in one night and come back in the morning.”

Most customers start to leave around 10:30, Wang says.

“It’s good because we can clean up and get out of here by 12, or stay and hang out,” she says.

Cha says busy times vary from night to night.

“There is a lag at dinnertime,” he says. “Then people usually come out to study. Our busiest time is between 8 (p.m.) and 10 (p.m.)”

Cha says he drinks five to six cups of coffee a day to stay up until close. He is getting used to the caffeine, so he also started drinking Red Bull energy drink.

“I never used to drink anything like that,” he says.

Wang usually uses the last hour of the night to clean the machines and the equipment, which she must do every day, and do dirty dishes.

“It’s become my routine now, my homework since I don’t go to school,” she says.

On Thursdays, Wang uses the downtime throughout the night to get ready to go out after work.

“Some nights I have rollers in my hair and I have on my clothes to go out,” she says.

On Thursdays, Wang also plays chess with customers during “Chess Night,” a weekly gathering of customers who like to play the game.

“I got involved with all these hobbies since I can’t go out much,” she says. “We do it in here and other people can enjoy it.”

As business dies down, more of Wang’s friends come to the store.

“For the most part, I come here every day,” says Brian Hurley, a friend who works at In Flight down the street. “I just spin and hang out with everyone else.”

A few last-minute consumers come in from 11 p.m. to midnight. Some regular customers stay until close, studying and talking.

“We have a lot of regulars,” Cha says. “Typically, there are people that stay until close.

“You do get to meet a lot of different kinds of people.”

John Persak, one of Wang’s friends who stops by regularly, says not only Wang’s friends gather at the shop.

“This is a meeting spot for a lot of people,” he says. “We try to direct them in the right way.”

Wang and her friends often stay at the shop for hours after it closes. On this night, they plan to hang out until around 5 a.m. - if they can stay up that long.

“I live here, basically,” Wang says. “Customers see all of the ups and downs, all of the drama.”