If you need a place to study, eat or just get away from your roommate, you’re in luck.
Located in the building that formerly housed Antlers Pub, the One Green World Café is a coffee shop/night club combo – a business, created by the students, that is student-run and student-managed.
Jason Steinberg, the associate director of the International Student Office, said a strong fundraising campaign generated $4,500 that was used to make supplies for the café.
“We ended up building our coffee counter out of recycled materials,” he said.
In fact, green efforts – like recycling – are a huge part of the Café’s mission. Steinberg said the two main goals of this café are to promote international and American students working together and working toward a green world, by supporting efforts to up-cycle, recycle, compost and eat healthier.
For those who don’t know, up-cycling is a form of recycling that takes apart pre-made materials and then puts them back together into something more valuable.
For example, wood with an initial value of 50 cents might be taken from several chairs and put back together to make a sleek, modern table that’s worth $1,000, Steinberg said.
The café will partially be furnished with up-cycled furniture, he said.
Because this café is all about students, Steinberg said the café is furnishing itself with 20-25 student employees, half of whom are international and half of whom are American.
Kurt Hersch, an instructor in the entrepreneurship department who has been instrumental in helping the students learning to run a business, said this mix of cultures is no accident.
“This was designed to have the international and American students interact by enabling them into conversation,” he said.
“If you work with someone you will eventually talk to that person.”
“I love working with people from other places,” Lexie Mastro, junior physician assistant major, said.
“I have learned so much about other cultures just by working here.”
The café serves a variety of food and drink options.
Some of these include mocha lattes, caramel lattes, berry smoothies, protein shakes and even a deep fried risotto ball with pesto, Steinberg said.
Steinberg said prices at One Green World Café are competitive, falling higher than those at McDonald’s but lower than those at Starbucks.
Also, the café accepts GU Gold.
Steinberg encourages students to come to the café.
He said it has the best atmosphere in Erie.
Many workers, such as Krish Togercheti, a second-year graduate student studying embedded software engineering, and Anthony Sims, a sophomore mathematics major, agree that it is a good place to study and hang out.
“Just 10 minutes ago there was a group of five students studying in the lounge area,” Togercheti said.
Tricia Theiss contributed to this story.
