The former Procrastination Station located in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library lobby was taken down this summer and replaced by an expanded café on the same floor.
The Peoples Organic Coffee Café Procrastination Station opened on Sept. 3 and is located directly across from the library entrance.
The new café, which took about a year and a half to build, includes a larger menu, more hours and more seating for patrons. Executive Director of Auxiliary Enterprises Ken Toong likened the café to a Starbucks coffee shop, but said that it has better food.
Toong wants the café to be a place for students to build community, mingle and take a break. He said it is the only eatery on campus that is open 24 hours a day, five days a week. The café opens at 11 a.m. on Sunday and closes at 9 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday, it is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Toong hopes that it will eventually be open 24 hours a day all week.
“The hours are great, and it looks pretty nice,” noted Michelle Piantedosi, a communications major. “I haven’t really tried the food, but it’s a great selection. I usually just get coffee.”
The café serves coffee from the Peoples Organic company of Minneapolis, and all of the food it serves – including the fruit, bread and meat – is organic.
The café cost about $1 million to build and was funded through a joint venture between dining services and the library administration.
It averages about 1,200 patrons a day, which is about 200 more than the old
Procrastination Station averaged last year.
The average daily revenues have also doubled from about $2,300 to about $5,000, according to David Eichstaedt, director of retail dining services.
“It’s such a hot spot,” added Claudia Brown, director of finance for Auxiliary Enterprises. “It’s doing better than we thought.”
Some students said that they like the new café better than the old station because it offers a larger selection of food and is in a better location.
One student, Yamato Matsusaka, has a similar opinion. He prefers the new café to the old station.
“I love it. It’s so much better … better variety of food,” said Yamato Matsusaka, 21, a senior mathematics major.
“The atmosphere is nicer, futuristic, modern… it looks brand new,” added Matsusaka.
Mary Reines can be reached at [email protected].
