The new look and interior for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)’s Haven Books and Café was unveiled last week, after a series of delayed renovations.
The renovation was part of a campaign promise by the 2018 One Carleton slate, which won all but one seat in last year’s CUSA byelections.
Luke Taylor, CUSA vice-president (finance), said adding the café to the bookstore was a way to maximize the utility of the current space and to provide students with a place to study, hang out, and buy coffee.
“As a bookstore, it’s only used for the most part during the beginnings of each semester to sell books, and then, the next two or three months, not a lot of foot traffic goes through,” Taylor said.
“There’s no real reason why anyone would come through if there are no textbooks to be bought.”
Katie Berger, who manages the bookstore, said she hoped the renovations will encourage students to spend more time at Haven Books.
“We hope to appeal to those people that are both on the go, and also the people that just want to hang around and spend some time here with us,” she said.
“We want to be the spot for the commute to school. If you’re coming by to grab a bus on Sunnyside, you can quickly come and buy a coffee if you’d like,” Berger added.
Planning for the café began last year, following the elections, but faced a number of delays that pushed back its opening date which was initially scheduled for last semester.
Taylor said the delays were a result of construction on Seneca Street over the summer, where Haven Books is located, slowing down a lot of the planning.
“A lot of stuff took longer in the summer, in terms of permits, and as well, there was a ton of construction going on in the street,” he said.
Taylor added the opening of The Wing, CUSA’s new convenience store, which was also introduced this past year, also played a role in the delays.
“Even though we were in a position where we could have rushed it and opened right in the beginning of January, we took our time and made sure we did everything right, especially after it being the second business renovation of the year,” he said.
Berger said introducing the café was something that the business wanted to do for a while, but she said it made more sense to open it after the busy month of January when most students line up to buy textbooks at the store.
“It was pretty great to launch it after the January rush because it is new, so we needed to learn a lot about coffee, get trained, and take the time to do it right,” she said.
Taylor said the addition of the café hopes to provide a community space for off-campus students and people living in the Ottawa-South community.
“You’d be able to go that space and meet people who are at maybe different phases of life, but also interested in the same thing,” he said.
“I think that could be really strong for the community, but also really strong in terms of providing opportunities for Carleton students outside of university as well.”
Berger said the business is “open to the idea of students potentially wanting to use the space for events and future programming.”
The café currently offers a variety of coffee, latte, and tea options, with plans being made to add new items to the menu very soon.
“We’re doing a couple of things that really lend well to spending more time here,” Berger said, adding they’ve been openly seeking recommendations from students for future menu items.
“We’re really excited to have students coming in throughout more of the year just to have more of that community in here,” she said.
The café is located at Seneca and Sunnyside, less than a five-minute bus ride from campus. θ
Image by Jasmine Foong
