We went cafe hopping! Going to numerous cafe’s in a day is surprisingly difficult and I was certainly struggling putting another cake into my body. But, I have learned a new variety of drinks and really appreciate the ability to have new options at coffee shops. As far as the takeaway for the Hub goes, I really appreciated the reusable drinkware, for both aesthetics and the environmental impact. Overall, really fun day,
Towards the end of the day we enjoyed coffee from Benelux cafe near NC State campus. The interior of this homey restaurant was slightly small but the drink made up for the atmosphere. A cinnamon cappuccino with a warm muffin is a great combination to fill the stomach without holding you back. I would rate this experience a 8/10.
Our last stop is Fount Café. By far, this was my favorite stop not only because of the ambience and how nice the servers were, but also because of the types of coffee they had. Their coffee comes from South and Central America, and we all noted how smooth the coffee was in both hot and iced drinks. While this is similar to The Hub’s coffee (coffee is from farmers in Honduras), we thought that the expansion of different countries creates a different flavor of coffee.
I think one of the things I noticed within all the cafes was the atmosphere and how they all created a nice place to do work or chat. I think implementing something like this in the Hub would be nice. While the library does exist as a space to do work, it doesnt give the same atmosphere that incentivizes people to buy things from the Hub. 
The second stop was at Benelux Coffee, which was in the furthest corner of the world and took years to find. Regardless, this café is also themed in more rustic aesthetics, and a lot of their foods are themed around being organic and natural. I feel like The Hub can’t really accommodate for the organic ingredients that Benelux has, we can sort of connect as we have local ingredients.
Our first spot is Brew Coffee Bar in downtown Cary. They have a very retro theme in the shop, as they use re-usable dishware like mason jars, and they tend to play swing music and old piano music. This brought up the idea of themed restaurants to create memorable experiences – while it might be hard to introduce a theme to The Hub (and we only really have seasonal themes), we could try and introduce artwork from students for each seasonal theme like at the Brew Coffee Bar. The art here is both abstract and retro-ish themes.
The ambiance that the first cafe gave was very chill and created a nice homey vibe. My personal favorite thing about the cafe was that they gave the drinks in nice cups, which personally I think we could use as inspiration for the cafe at CA. We could give these jars or cups out and then get them to return. Or, we could sell personalized cary academy jars or cups then sell them as an add on with the drink. 
What is the role of coffee & cafés in our daily lives? We are eight student Hub workers in search of coffee culture excellence… Exposing the participants to coffee shops beyond The Hub café can help improve customer service, drink-making, and inspire new ideas (e.g., seasonal drinks). All the places we are visiting sell their own coffee grounds and are local, non-chain cafés. Starting with shops that only sell drinks to a brunch-esque café, the participants will explore how businesses incorporate, sell, and market various products, similar to the Hub’s collection of items. Why are there so many cafés? What challenges are they facing, and how can we better support The Hub?
