New Venture Launch
Opening a café in a public library
“After the pandemic, it became clear that the Library should not be operating a café but should focus its staffing efforts to library services...”
Summary
For seven months between day zero to grand opening, I partnered with a San Leandro baker and small business owner to open the first privately run café at our city public library. Come visit the café!
When the café was run by the library, it ran a deficit and had closed for several years. I supported the business owner through the public bidding process, concept planning, and operations for opening their first café concept.
It was so refreshing to work on a real-world service for the public benefit. I would love to do more of this kind of work in the future.
My contributions:
Strategic communications to win a successful public bidding and approval process with Library staff and City Council.
Market research to learn from other library café concepts.
Iteratively drafting a floor plan approved by the county environmental health inspector for permitting for upgrades and to operate a food service in the library.
Integrating ADA compliance and digital accessibility practices into the physical space and website to make it a welcoming environment for the public.
Coordinating production of large-scale logo and custom art window signage in the brands aesthetic
Procuring wholesale restaurant furniture in alignment with an ADA-compliant floor plan.
Creating sales forecasting models to support business planning and financial loan applications.
Standing up project management templates
Providing advising and moral support in launching a new high risk business.
Research and planning
Conducted market research with 4 library cafés
Set up project management tools
Created sales projections models
Iterative physical and digital prototyping
Prototyped the floor plan in the physical space
Collaborated on early paper and digital floor plans
Drafted final floor plan for marketing and inspections
Accessibility considerations
To make the menu more accessible, I created an menu NFC tap card instead of a QR code and provided an accompanying standard operating procedure
Created additional equipment schedules and maps to address changes for county environmental health permitting and ADA compliance
Signage production
Working with cafe staff, library staff, marketing firm, city public works, a local artist, and a signage company to produce and install decal signage.
