"We envision Archicafé as a cozy and informal place," say new managers Anna and Michal Kantor

We meet at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in the crowded and buzzing café you have been running for several years. How did you get the idea to start a business at the university?

MK: We wanted to set up a café, but a traditional space somewhere on the high street was expensive and unavailable to us. We discussed who needs coffee the most to live and found that universities are still mostly button machines, or at best a presso and a Turkish coffee. The Faculty of Civil Engineering at the CTU was the first to come to our rescue.

AK: We were lucky that the treasurer at the time was a coffee enthusiast and he lacked good coffee. They provided us with an unused reading room full of old wooden cupboards where nobody went. We put six pallets in the corner, an old coffee machine and started brewing coffee.

Did you want to expand right away?

MK: Mainly we tried to improve our operation here. I remember when we were planning a better bar at IKEA. But then we realised that we needed to renovate the whole space conceptually and involve the students. In collaboration with the school, we held a non-stop weekend workshop, which resulted in the current café design.

AK: The students designed and we baked the muffins. That was our responsible role at that time.

MK: We were looking for other establishments at the same time and got burned several times. For example, at private universities the operation probably won't and can't work. We waited there with a coffee machine, but we were pretty much the only ones in the building.

What plans do you have for the Archicafé space?

MK: We understand that this is a representative area of the faculty, right by the entrance, where many people meet for business meetings. We would like to make it an informal and cozy place where there is a large work table for collaborative projects, a library, a couch and some hideaway space.

AK: We have the idea of chill-out zones, like comfortable chairs, but also workplaces.

Do you want to fit all these features into the small space of Archicafé?

MK: We will try our best. I also see great potential in the space in front of the faculty and towards the building and in the atrium, where there could also be a few seats. We don't have everything exactly defined yet and it will depend on the agreement with the faculty. However, we know that if the space is to function similarly to the café at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, a complete renovation of the interior will not be avoided.

Can we expect another student workshop and muffins?

AK: It seems so. We'll try to get the students themselves to suggest what they would like the Archicafé to look like.

You'll be running the Archicafé from January 2024. Are you looking forward to a busy studio week?

AK: We would like to be ready with our coffee, coffee machine and grinders. We'll start the first semester in the existing space, and people will be able to try the new coffee and range. We'll be fine-tuning opening hours, for example, and we'll also be gradually renovating the kitchen so that everything is ready for the new operation from the winter term 2024.

What product range do you plan to offer?

AK: The offer will be very similar to here – a wide range of coffee, hot drinks, teas and lemonades. The range of hot drinks will be varied enough for anyone to choose from. We will of course also offer batch or cold brew. For those who don't drink coffee, we have great chai lattes or hot chocolates, for example. When we rebuild the bar a bit, we'll offer more cold drinks.

What about a wider choice of milk and its plant-based options?

AK: We will offer more varieties. Some people choose them because of the taste, for example I like oat milk better, which we will offer for a small extra charge, just like almond milk. At the same time, we'll offer lactose-free milk and one plant-based milk, modified to be suitable for people with difficult diets and high sensitivities to a number of substances. We will be trying potato or rice milk, ordered at no extra charge, so that everyone, even those with health problems, can have a coffee at the same price as everyone else.

MK: We haven't had that opportunity for a long time. It's another thing we've learned and found out through talking to students and the school. Some things don't cross our minds. It's great if you bring it to our attention and we adapt. We are open to discussion and ideas.

But architects and designers are also hungry.

MK: The expansion of the food offer is dependent on modifications to the kitchen, which is located in the building further away from the café, around the corner. We need to sort out better access and administration such as sanitation consent. We will start with toast and breads, and gradually want to add breakfast offerings like sausages and scrambled eggs. You can also look forward to quesadillas or soups. We want to offer not only fresh and healthy products, but also comfort food (like homemade brownies, thick soups, etc.). For most products, we are planning a vege, vegan or lactose-free option.

You take pride in the fact that the Faculty of Civil Engineering is staffed directly by people from the school. Are you planning to recruit for the new Archicafé?

MK: There will be a head barista in each café, and we are already training an experienced Lucka for the Faculty of Architecture who will be in charge of the whole operation. And we'll be adding quite a few students to her because the FA operation will be bigger, expanded just to include the kitchen. So we need to create another dream team that will enjoy it, just like here.

I've looked at your social media, you and your team are quite fond of climbing ferratas.

MK: We do teambuilding three times a year. (laughs)

AK: We like climbing. And now our colleagues like it too (laughs). We try to make the trips a bit more adventurous, so they're not just trips to the pub. We'd like to get the team up and running by the end of November now, so we have time to get the new baristas fully trained at the Faculty of Civil Engineering.

Are you full-time café workers?

AK: Michal works in the public sector and I work for a family company that produces Jelen soap and washing powder, so we also clean the whole café with Jelen products.

Which is a brand that prides itself a lot on ecology and sustainability. How do you think about eco-friendly solutions in the café?

AK: We cooperate with a small coffee roastery in Kroměříž, which supplies fair-trade grains directly to the farmers. We do not support big exchanges and corporations. So the coffee is delivered to us in the best possible way and the farmer gets a fair reward.

MK: We also encourage people to bring their own mugs. Which is a much better solution than the returnable cups that come here in large shipments from China, and the traffickers make money from them. We didn't get many returns and we had to keep buying them back. They might work well at festivals, but in our café the impact was minimal.

AK: I have about 12 of them at home myself, because I'm just too lazy to return them. In the café we had a feast every time someone returned a cup. The best thing is when people have their own container.

Thermo mugs are also part of the Faculty of Architecture merchandise, you will probably come across them often.

MK: We would like to sell promotional items of the faculty, as in FSv, directly in the café. At the same time, we would like to have events like lectures and workshops in the café. We also want to be available to the school during irregular events, such as open days, we have already participated in the Night of Scientists, the Lesamay staff has been set up, etc.

You will have a difficult time, there is some competition among the faculties. You'll be running the café in both buildings at the same time. Aren't you worried about that?

AK: Students who choose to work with us will be such ambassadors. They will rotate between the two operations from time to time so they don't get bored of being in one place all the time. In the future we would like to organize inter-faculty runs, races are Michael's dream. The mutual rivalry is healthy and it would be nice to turn it into some kind of joint event.

You can find Kantor Coffee on Instagramu. If you are interested in working at the new Archicafé, you can get in touch via the Google form.

The interview was led by Pavel Fuchs.