November 28, 2019
This week Emmanuel’s on-campus Grove Cafe began serving the school community, marking an important step forward in the process of establishing itself as a neighbourhood coffee shop.
The Cafe is a high-quality shop offering fresh-roasted direct-trade coffee as well as other drinks and a variety of baked goods. In the words of Eden Boles, the Cafe manager and the chief visionary of the project, the “focus is coffee, community, and sustainability.”
As the Cafe operates, Boles is strategizing about how she can grow it into more than a coffee shop catering to those studying or working at the College. Since there are not many high-quality cafés nearby, she believes the Grove Cafe will be able to meet a demand among local coffee enthusiasts, including people who have no other contact with Emmanuel.
A current priority is the installation of an espresso machine, which will expand the menu and increase the Cafe’s appeal. Boles also has other plans to strengthen the menu and is considering ways of capitalizing on the attractive space where the Cafe is located.
She is planning on launching the Cafe to the public at some point in 2020.
The Grove Cafe has replaced the former Wildcat Cafe, a small student-run operation that offered drip coffee and some other drinks and snacks. Boles, who for years has worked in the Food Services Department, saw the potential to turn this operation into a larger venture that could help build connections with the wider community. Once the new kitchen, which is joined to the Cafe, was finished earlier this fall, the time was right for Boles to start the project.
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