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No eavesdropping: Apple to build employee-only cafeteria in Cupertino

Trevor Mogg
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It started with a cafeteria. It ended with an entire city full of Apple-built facilities exclusively for employees of the tech giant — Apple bars, Apple restaurants, Apple gyms, Apple hospitals, Apple supermarkets, Apple Apple Stores. Could it really happen? No, probably not.

Apple appears to have taken a step in that direction though, with the company having just obtained permission from the Cupertino Planning Commission for the construction of a 21,468-square-foot cafeteria exclusively for Apple employees.

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According to a Mercury News report, the cafeteria will be a private space for Apple employees, a place where they can fill their stomachs and talk about whatever they darn well like without having to worry whether the guy on the next table wearing dark glasses, a fedora and an enormous trench coat is recording their conversation about….well, about what, exactly? Last night’s ball game? The shape of a cloud they saw in the sky that morning? The surprising amount of fluff they always find in their navel whenever they go to take a shower? Or, possibly, The Next Big Thing?

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Speaking about the new cafeteria, Apple’s director of real estate facilities, Dan Whisenhunt, said, “We like to provide a level of security so that people and employees can feel comfortable talking about their business, their research and whatever project they’re engineering without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations.”

He continued, “That is a real issue today in Cupertino because we’ve got other companies here in our same business.”

Besides a cafeteria, the two-story facility will also house conference rooms, lounge areas and a courtyard space. An underground garage will be able to accommodate around 70 vehicles.

Commission chairperson Marty Miller was evidently bowled over by the tech company’s plans. “Just like everything Apple does, it has a flavor of very high quality to it and from an architectural standpoint, it’s a good addition to the city.”

One bonus is that should an Apple employee accidentally lose a prototype device at the cafeteria after being sent out in the field to test it, there’ll be a pretty good chance of it being handed in rather than it ending up on Craigslist.

[Image: Robert Adrian Hillman / Shutterstock]

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
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