Coffee bar on Brownsville campus may move indoors
Southern Rose Coffee truck sits on UTRGV Student Union lawn on the Brownsville campus. Derick Lara/Pulse
The coffee truck on the Student Union lawn on the Brownsville campus may be moving inside El Comedor, according to the shop owners and a university official.
UTRGV Campus and Auxiliary Services is currently in the “preliminary stages” of moving Southern Rose Coffee indoors on the Brownsville Campus.
The move has not been made official, but Edgar Ponce, program coordinator of UTRGV Campus and Auxiliary Services, said the university is working to make it possible.
“If it does happen, the option that we’re evaluating is within the Student Union, El Comedor,” Ponce said. “There is currently a coffee machine there, Costa Coffee machine … so that would be moving.”
Ponce added there is no definite date as to when the coffee shop would be moved indoors as of now, but the university should have a definite answer by early next week.
“We were selling a lot of coffee and matcha,” said Nicole Garcia, part owner of Southern Rose Coffee. “We’re only open from 8:30 [a.m.] to 1 [p.m.], so [UTRGV saw] that [our] progress is very fast and that we can do even better.”
Nicole Garcia said the coffee shop hopes to reopen in no later than two weeks.
Ruben Garcia, part owner of Southern Rose Coffee, said moving the coffee shop indoors will benefit everybody in the long run.
Ponce said UTRGV Campus and Auxiliary Services wants the move to happen.
“If it was up to me, it would have been [finalized] yesterday,” he said. “That’s just how important it is to service students out there on the Brownsville campus.”
Campus and Auxiliary Services is looking into different options in case the transition of moving Southern Rose Coffee indoors does not occur, according to the program coordinator.
“We’re in the early stages of exploring all options,” Ponce said. “We are exploring option A, B and C.”
The Southern Rose Coffee owners said they encourage UTRGV students to provide positive feedback.
“The more that [UTRGV] hears that we’re needed and wanted, the more that they’re going to fight,” Nicole Garcia said. “The more that students reach out, the better.”
