Ball State students have two additional places to get their caffeine and sugar fixes for the fall 2021 semester. Bookmark Cafe reopened Aug. 16 after a year being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rebekah Richardson, group leader for Bookmark Cafe who started working at Ball State in February 2021, said she is excited to offer drinks to students again. The cafe received a new espresso machine Aug. 20 and staff were making free drinks by request Friday to practice new techniques.
“I am looking forward to learning how to make all these things, honestly,” Richardson said. “The whole range of students coming in is always exciting and I’ve not worked through that yet since I came in halfway through the school year.”
Richardson said she is also looking forward to serving not just upperclassmen who missed their favorite Bookmark drinks, but also new students who have never tried any of Bookmark's menu items.
Faith Hones-Smith, freshman theater creations major, visited Bookmark Cafe Aug. 20 after walking around campus with some of her friends. Hones-Smith ordered a strawberry lemonade and said, "The service was amazing. [The lemonade] was very delicious."
Branden Erwin, freshman business major also visited Bookmark Cafe Aug. 20 and ordered a black coffee.
"We came here today after going around exploring,” he said. "We wanted to check out the library before we came, we went through every location of our classes.”
Erwin said he drinks any coffee brew and he thinks he might visit Bookmark again to have a more personal experience than ordering from Starbucks.
"There is not a coffee I won't drink," Erwin said.
A new Ball State dining addition is the Multicultural Center ice cream shop, open 3–8 p.m. Monday–Friday. The shop serves 16 different hand-dipped ice cream flavors, as well as shakes and donut ice cream sandwiches.