Coffeehouse to expand to BRC

By Brooke Bullock     1/13/11 6:00pm

Coffeehouse will bring its business to the BioScience Research Collaborative early this semester. A cart featuring almost the entire Coffeehouse menu will be stationed in the BRC. Coffeehouse General Manager Christine Cooper said that the cart will tentatively be open the first week of February and will serve coffee and other treats from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Cooper, a Baker College junior, said that the BRC was built with a space for a cafe but was still looking for a vendor when Coffeehouse was approached last semester. Opening a second location for Coffeehouse is something that has not been done before but Cooper thinks it is a great idea.

"Coffeehouse is in a really small space but we've got lots of ideas and love [for it]," Cooper said. "It will be great to put things we stand for out there."

The branch will be run much like the Coffeehouse in the Rice Memorial Center. Coffeehouse will continue to support fair trade and eco-friendly business. Some of the current Coffeehouse staff will also move over to the BRC but applications have been sent for anyone interested in joining the team with shorter working hours.

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One hope for the new branch is that it will bring together people working in the BRC.

"Having a Coffeehouse would be a great step forward to bringing together people working at the BRC and the Medical Center and even students in a social setting," Faculty Fellow Kurt Kasper, who currently works in the BRC, said.

Martel College senior Noemie Levy said that to have Coffeehouse in the BRC would be very convenient as well.

"I had friends that would run to the med center for Starbucks, but it takes so long to get there and it's expensive," Levy said.

Though Coffeehouse is still coordinating with the cart vendor, Cooper said they are excited to open soon. However, this trial run will determine whether Coffeehouse agrees to stay in the BRC the following year.

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