Rice Coffeehouse finds its beginnings in Hanszen College, where students would serve coffee in the Weenie Loft—a study room in the old section’s fourth floor. Later, the coffee house relocated to the Hanszen basement in order to accommodate its student patrons more comfortably. That coffee house became known as Bread and Pomegranates. Due to flooding, though, Bread and Pomegranates closed. In the intermediate years, demand grew for an on-campus coffee shop, and in 1990, Coffeehouse was founded as a student-run organization in its current location with partial funding from the Envision Grant.
At the time, Coffeehouse was little more than a kiosk, but has grown in size and more significantly in popularity. More recently, Coffeehouse has introduced fair-trade and organic coffee to Rice campus, revamped the look of its menu and installed a wall mural (designed by Rice archis). Additionally, Coffeehouse adopted a new logo that commemorates Rice’s overlooked and unofficial mascot, the squirrel.
Coffeehouse is currently working on expanding in to a new, larger space.
