A new student-run café, Saxbys, opened its doors to the Wellesley community on April 8. From 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays during the semester, Saxbys offers a wide range of foods and beverages, such as cold brew coffee, spinach mango smoothies, and grilled cheese sandwiches, on the ground floor of the Margaret Clapp Library. At the café’s grand opening, Wellesley College President Paula A. Johnson described it as the “centerpiece” of Clapp, the final touch of the library’s yearlong renovation and a place where “we can commune together, eat together, and just replenish our bodies and our minds.”
Saxbys is Wellesley’s third student-run eatery, joining the ranks of longtime co-ops El Table and Café Hoop. Unlike the co-ops, which students own and operate, Saxbys is part of the Saxbys Experiential Learning Platform, a company that installs cafés on college campuses and empowers students to operate them. There are 30-plus Saxbys cafés across the country, including at Boston University and Northeastern; Wellesley is the first liberal arts college to host a Saxbys.
Though their business models differ, all three cafés provide students with opportunities for on-campus employment that also fulfill the College’s experiential learning requirement. Jen Pollard, Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Executive Director and Associate Provost for Career Education and Experiential Learning, says the requirement has “led to countless programs and experiential opportunities gaining new recognition on the Wellesley transcript.”
El Table, the oldest of the student cafés, started in 1904 as a table by the elevator in Founders Hall, where students would sell snacks. (“El” is short for “Elevator.”) Now, it has its own little nook, a cozy and eccentric space in the basement between Founders and Green Hall, where students can eat, drink, and hang out on weekdays during the semester from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Fun fact: El Table offers a sandwich named after Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59, former U.S. secretary of state, who worked there when she was a student.)
Café Hoop, which opened in the early 1980s, serves the night owls of the Wellesley community on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 p.m. to midnight, and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Students who work at the cafés take on managerial roles and responsibilities, and by working with other students and interacting with customers, they learn valuable professional and interpersonal skills. At El Table, for example, “you can help with financial operations, food operations, taking stock, and ordering inventory,” says Melissa Retana ’26, the general manager. “You can also help with the publicity.”
Ivy Targino ’28 and Chloe Lau ’28 are the chief operations officers of Wellesley’s Saxbys. Targino says she wanted to get business experience and learned about Saxbys at a Career Education job fair. “I was really looking for the perfect fit, both what I was seeing in a cultural sense, but also in that ability for me to do my job the best way I can,” Targino says, adding that finding Saxbys felt like being “in the right place at the right time.”
Lau, who says she has always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, was drawn to the company’s core values of team-building and community: “Those are really aligned with my values and what I want to do in the future.”
Working at the cafés also offers students a way to find community on campus. Retana says their first year felt a bit lonely, and they wanted friends they could depend on. At El Table, they say, “I’ve been able to connect and make friendships with people whom I probably would have never been involved with, let alone run into on campus. It’s really broadened my horizons because it’s a people-facing job.”
“This is definitely the best type of job that I’ve had,” says Mackenzie Gibson ’28, the El Table food manager. “It just feels rewarding to work with my peers, to get to talk to them, build friendships, and also serve my peers.” Gibson says she loves it when she recognizes people who come into El Table and doesn’t even need to ask their name for their order, bringing their food right to their table: “It’s just nice to really feel connected to the Wellesley campus and Wellesley student body, just in a serving way.”
“I love the environment and the music,” says Kate Wepsic ’28, a self-described “loyal El Tabler” who often enjoys a Vanilla Ice drink between classes or while doing work. “I love how you’re allowed to be in there and not order anything, hang out, talk to people, and just do work. It feels like its own community that’s by students for students.”
Café Hoop also has a devoted following. “My Wellesley experience would not be the same if I hadn’t been a Hoopie,” says Courtney Robinson ’26, one of Café Hoop’s spring 2026 general managers. Robinson applied to join Café Hoop her junior year, after having spent time hanging out there and eating the pesto pizza bagel “almost religiously.”
“Cafe Hoop is a living archive of queer joy, student resistance, and the power of community,” says Robinson, who loves all the handwritten notes and Polaroids that decorate the space. “There is so much tradition baked into the walls.” Robinson also points out that Café Hoop in particular, because it is open so late, is a place that is “away from the eyes of admin” and those outside the Wellesley community. “Students come here to be comfortable, to get fed, to make memories,” Robinson says. If a student has been out at a party, they can stop at Café Hoop on their way back to the dorms, and “get a pizza bagel, be taken care of, and chat up a Hoopie,” says Robinson. “It’s a place filled with so many memories and so much joy.”
Retana says that at the cafés students can forgo competition and academic stress and just foster community. “It’s kind of invaluable,” Gibson agrees. “Just having a space where you can build something with your peers, and it’s not academic, and it has a goal, still, that you’re building toward. It just feels like I can be myself.”
Targino hopes Saxbys will also be a safe, enjoyable place for students. She and Lau admire the long histories of El Table and Café Hoop. “They have such a strong and resilient community that we have seen firsthand and that we really aspire to one day,” Targino says. “I think that seeing how wonderful their team members are, and [how] everybody in the co-ops is like a family, has been an inspiration to us.”
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El Table and Café Hoop are now closed for the semester, and Saxbys’ last day is May 8. All three cafés will reopen when classes start in the fall.