The former Wall Street Cafe in Rich Hall is being revamped by students in the School of Business and will be reopened as the Rich ‘N’ Pour Café & Lounge this April.

Wall Street Cafe did not open for this academic year, according to Megan Casley, a business student and one of 11 students working on this project. Auxiliary Services chose to close the cafe after finding it was losing around $2 for every dollar it made in profit, Casley said. 

Instead of keeping it closed, the School of Business partnered with Auxiliary Services to organize a 400-level management class that would give students the opportunity to create a business plan to reopen for good.

“We have a lot of staff working with us,” Casley said. She continued, saying the class is working with Auxiliary Services, local business owners and the Dean of the School of Business. 

Casley’s role in the project was initially in sales research and development where she designed and distributed a questionnaire to students to get their thoughts on the previous cafe. 

“It was asking what student preferences are, mainly in the school of business because that’s who we are catering to,” Casley said. “We had to get approval from the Human Subjects committee because it was research … so that took three weeks just to make the survey and get it approved.”

After it was sent out to students, Casley and her classmates analyzed the data and presented it to the rest of the class. 

“It was really exciting getting the survey results because not only was it like ‘I accomplished something’ … there was so much excitement about getting the cafe open,” Casley said. “We’re so excited because there were a lot of very positive comments coming from students and staff.”

Casley is also developing multiple feedback surveys for students and staff of the cafe to fill out after its reopening. She said that they are hoping to iron out any issues from both the consumer and worker side as they come up.

“I’m trying to make it where the employees take the survey at least every two weeks,” Casley said. “So we can look at it week-to-week and see what is making employees like their job and what is making them … overwhelmed.”

The biggest difference in the new cafe, Casley said, is that it will serve Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters instead of Starbucks drink products.

“We didn’t want to be a copycat of Lake Effect Cafe because that’s kind of what [the old cafe] was,” Casley said. “It was just Starbucks drinks and the same muffins and scones you could get anywhere, so we really tried to make it something different.”

Along with a new menu, Casley said they also changed some of the interior design of the space, including new counter tops, furniture and a partial repaint of the walls. 

“We got more comfortable seating from other parts in … Rich Hall,” Casley said. “There’s rarely any classes on the first floor and it is rare to find anyone actually sitting down there and using it, so we … put it up there. We still have the [other] tables and stools but we moved them out to a different part of the cafe.”

Funding for the renovations and other changes within the cafe came from Auxiliary Services and Casley said they were not given a budget to work with. Any financial decision the class wanted to make had to be pitched to Auxiliary Services in a professional manner before it was approved. 

“We were told when we came in that … it’s just about the decisions we make,” Casley said. “It was just, ‘don’t go crazy and be smart about it.’”

The Oswego Poker club is hosting a promotional event at the cafe on April 25 with blackjack, Texas hold ‘em and roulette tables. 

“It’s a collaboration to say ‘Hey, the cafe is open, come have fun and see what it’s like,’” Casley said. “Poker club gets a lot of students from all majors … it’s a way for [them] to come to Rich Hall.”

The cafe will have a soft opening in the beginning of April as a way to “test the waters,” according to Casley. The grand opening is scheduled for April 11 at 11:30 a.m.

Photo provided by: Megan Casley