And that one has undergone a change in ownership.

As reported two weeks ago, the fate of one of the independent cafes was sealed when Equity Office Partners, the property managers for the Pruneyard Shopping Center, declined to renew the Campbell Coffee Roasting Company's lease come the end of August. Although Equity Office hasn't yet named a new tenant, the talk of the town is that a corporate entity, like Peet's Coffee & Tea, will move into the space. The second independent cafe, Barda's in the Kirkwood Plaza, shut its doors last month, making way for yet another Starbucks Coffee in the Orchard City.

If Peet's indeed establishes a shop in the Pruneyard, Campbell will have a half-dozen chain coffee cafes either within its city limits or on its borders.

It's a fact that hasn't been lost on Jeanna Lurie, a loyal customer of the Orchard Valley Coffee café, which will be the only independently owned coffeehouse left in town.

"I don't want to see employees in funky uniforms or listen to elevator music when I get coffee," she said. "I really just like a place to sit around and hang out."

Lurie has been going to the Orchard Valley Coffee café for more than 10 years. She said she likes the place because of the quality of the coffee, the music it plays and because it has such a down-home feel to it, which makes it a comfortable place to bring friends and colleagues. So when she heard that the coffee shop had recently changed owners, she became dismayed thinking about the possibilities.

"I wrote to the owners and told them that if they were going to make any changes, the changes had better not be dramatic," she said. "I come here with my daughter three or four times a week, and I like things just the way they are."

In July, the original owners of the cafe—Keith Cova and John Benjamin—called it quits. Cova said that Benjamin decided to put more time and effort into a coffee shop he runs in Fresno. And Cova just felt like it was time for him to move on.

"After 12 years, the fire wasn't burning inside me anymore," he said. "My life has changed so much in that time. I have two little kids, and with those responsibilities, I'm not willing to take the time anymore to do things right at the coffee shop."

The two men sold the business to Eve Ngov and Tek Luu, family partners who most recently ran the Palo Alto Baking Co. in Palo Alto. Before that, they ran bakeries in Mountain View and Los Altos, a deli in San Francisco and a coffee shop in San Leandro.

Ngov said the Orchard Valley Coffee Café is the only business they now run. And she will strive to keep the atmosphere of the place as much like the original as possible.

But, she said, that doesn't mean there will be no changes at all.

Ngov said she plans to get new showcase displays for the pastries and ice cream, and she's in the process of getting city approval for a new, beefed-up kitchen. They plan to offer pastries baked on-site, which will require an oven.

"In order to compete with places like Starbucks," she said, "we're going to need everything as fresh as it can be. We can do that by baking our own pastries."

The pastries they currently sell come from different vendors, she said.

Beside changes to the kitchen and counter areas, she plans to leave the paintings, the wireless Internet access and the coffee the same.

"Those are good," she said. "Why should I spend money to change something that's already good?"

Cova, now working in mortgage financing with Los Gatos­based Catapult Mortgage, continues to visit the cafe as a customer. He said he's confident that the new owners will be good for the coffee shop and the customers.

"They're going to take the place to a whole new level," he said. "John and I agree that what they plan to do with the place was what we needed to do, but didn't have the experience to do it."

Since the new owners took over, most customers haven't noticed any changes at all.

"I've seen nothing different in the past few weeks," said David Ho, who regularly meets fellow chess players for friendly games at night.

But other customers have seen some changes and are pleasantly surprised.

"I was gone for all of July, and when I came back I noticed the bathrooms were painted," Lurie said. "And I thought it was nice, because before I left I remember thinking that someone should paint the place."

But, she said, she doesn't care for the new "elevator music" being piped in through the speakers.