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i looked at doing this myself and here are the main things i looked at.
-locking down your network. mac authentication or radius (i think you and your bf can covere this with a good *NIX server solution)
-a way to regulate access by the day/hour/minute (a good accounting package should do this with a few modifications)
-a stong network connection that will handle the peak usage without slowing down the network
other ideas for a cafe
-i would add postal/UPS/FedEx service as a membership option (they pay a monthly rate and you receive packages for them).
-individual email accts at the cafe with web based access.
-storage space on the server for people to keep files if they don't have a home computer.
-solid rules about personal grooming. sounds stupid, but the centers i know about have rules that you must leave every 24 hours to shower if you are staying for extended periods.
-most expensive... redundancy. an ISP can be down for half an hour and still meet there 99.x% uptime requirement to you, but that downtime could kill your gaming income if it happens at the wrong time.
-as an added income, make the cafe a WISP. sell access to people around the building. for less then a grand you can buy the equip to propagate your 802.11x signal for up to 5 miles depending on interference. i don't have any data to back up this next thought, but i'm guessing most of your cafe bandwidth would come after normal 8-5 business hours so if you get a few businesses to buy bandwidth from you you can make a few bucks during what 'should' be your low bandwidth hours on your connection.
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