(From left) Year Four students Timmy Ng, Flora Yau, Elizabeth Li and Winston Lau have won the bid to run a café on the main campus
To infinity and beyond
New student-run café to brew ideas and friendships
Elizabeth Li Shan-shan has high hopes for The Infinity Room opening next semester as CUHK’s first student-run cafe. “Coming through the past few years of remote learning, we feel that fellow students are eager to reconnect with each other. We will provide the space for them to mingle with peers outside their own circles – there is no such place on the campus yet.”
In July, the Fine Arts student and her three friends, all in their fourth year, were awarded a contract to run the business at a shop next to the supermarket on the main campus, after beating 11 other teams in a pitching competition for the start-up project organised by the Office of Student Affairs.
In so naming their shop, they envision it as a new social-cultural icon. “We hope to carry on the spirit of running a creative space here for students, just like the communal social space and the marketplace that were here before. We will be working with other groups to stage exhibitions or hold activities,” says Li, who has worked part-time in a café in Mong Kok.
One of the plans, she says, is to turn the cafe into a mini art gallery. An active curator of the Fine Arts Department’s exhibitions at the Hui Gallery at New Asia College, she would like to reach out to a wider audience.
In a market survey they conducted before the pitching competition, the team found that half of some 200 students they interviewed drank coffee two to five times a week. Two-thirds of them felt there were not enough caffeine spots on the campus, while some would like a place that not only sold good food at affordable prices, but also had a brand story to tell.
Her teammate Flora Yau Sin-yan, from the Integrated BBA programme who will be responsible for marketing, believes their shop will have an advantage over the six existing cafés on campus with its central location and reasonable pricing. “We want to create cozy vibes for customers to chat with their friends or study, and we will be sourcing coffee catering to young people’s tastes.”
Drinks at the café will be priced between HK$20 and HK$30, while cakes, desserts and other snacks will be served as well.
In addition to art, the Infinity Room has other plans to build its creative space: gigs by student bands; sit-down chats with students and teachers featured by “CUHK Records”, a social media page run by students and alumni to share their stories; and a display about people’s collective childhood memories like food and toys.
Also in the team is barista and Systems Engineering student Winston Lau Wai-sum, who has also been recognised as a “coffee master” at a coffee-shop chain where he had worked part-time for two years. He says coffee beans will be sourced from a local roaster to ensure their coffee tastes fresh, and fruity blends popular among young people would be selected.
The team is now working out interior designs with a professional architect studying at CUHK while seeking for more funding for operating the start-up. They will also hire a chef and several part-time student helpers.
“We are lucky that we don’t need to pay for the rent and the renovation works. But we will do our best to run the coffee shop as a real business, delivering quality food and service. That’s the only way we can be sustainable,” Yau adds. “If we have a profit, we will leave some of it for our successors or support other student start-ups.” The Office of Student Affairs will keep the space for entrepreneurial initiatives after the two-year contract with the Infinity Room.
Each of the Infinity Room team members have decided to defer their graduation for a year so as to commit more time for the cafe, opening Monday to Friday.
“During the exam seasons, we will remain open throughout the night,” Lai says. “We will be working and studying in the shop, staying together with everyone.”
By Joyce Ng
Photos by Amy Tam
