Coffeehouse relocating this summer

BY CASEY MICHEL
Special to Rice News

The student-run Rice Coffeehouse is scheduled for a move and a makeover this summer.

The coffeehouse isn’t leaving the Student Center, where it started in 1990, but the nonprofit service will move from its current location opposite the Rice Bookstore to the Kelley Lounge on the southeast side of the student center.

	JEFF FITLOW
	This summer Rice Coffeehouse will move from its current location opposite the Rice Bookstore to the Kelley Lounge on the southeast side of the student center.

Student Center Associate Director Pamelyn Shefman said the proposed move has already passed a study of feasibility and has moved on to the financing stage. She expects the coffeehouse, which averages more than 600 customers on weekdays, to move at some point early this summer so that it can reopen at the beginning of the academic year in the fall.

”Students have been requesting to expand the space for some time, simply because they’ve outgrown the current space,” Shefman said. ”The coffeehouse’s current customer volume actually disrupts the traffic of the building, which is a great problem to have. But if we could put that line of customers in a place that doesn’t block the hallway, that would be great.”

Shefman noted that the new space would not only ease foot traffic within the building but would also help with the coffeehouse’s inventory. For instance, many of the items that the coffeehouse sells in the morning, including bagels and scones, are often sold out by the evening.

”The coffeehouse is moving because we have reached the carrying capacity of our current space,” Coffeehouse Operation Manager Erin Rouse said. ”Two years ago, we dramatically increased our food offerings, adding Hot Bagel Shop bagels and more pastries from local bakers Cakes on Call to the menu. With such a vibrant local culinary scene, Houston is an ideal place for a small shop like ours. We want to get more involved in the local food offerings and carry a wider variety of delicious fare.”

This would be the first time the coffeehouse has moved since 1991, and students understandably have a sense of attachment to the current location, affectionately nicknamed ”The Closet.”

”I have a sentimental connection to The Closet,” Rouse, a Wiess College senior, said. ”There are a lot of fun memories, many documented on the walls. However, we’re all excited to upgrade the facility and look forward to the challenge of making it our own.”

”The coffeehouse has really been doing well, and we need more space,” Coffeehouse General Manager Christine Cooper, a Baker College junior, said.

The coffeehouse – which is run and staffed solely by students – has helped many generations of Rice students with their café needs, and has become one of the campus’s favorite institutions. Shefman said that the expansion will help keep the coffeehouse serving patrons for years to come.

”The coffeehouse is really a key student operation,” she said. ”We’re very excited to expand, and I know the students will do a fabulous job at the new location.”