A free Harvard coffee house will open Friday night in the Straus Common Room to anyone interested in singing, smiling, or sipping coffee.

Organizers hope the coffee house will supply Harvard students with a quiet, inexpensive place to bring their dates.

Guy V. Rochman '73, one of the organizers, said, "For the first time at Harvard students will have a place to play their instruments, read poetry, voice their complaints, or generally fuck off.

"Performers need no qualifications, only the desire to perform and the guts to stand there and chance making utter fools of themselves." Rochman said.

"The people at the Freshman Union have agreed to lend us their equipment to make coffee. Cookies, popcorn, and other neat stuff will be served," Rochman said.

Organizers stressed that the new coffee house is not in competition with the Nameless, another coffee house operating near the Yard. They said they are trying an entirely different approach to the coffee-house concept.

The coffee house will be open from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday nights in the Straus Common Room.