A popular campus cafe has been closed for almost a month because of a mouse problem.
The O Cafe in Lang at 65 W 11th Street, which is slated to re-open Monday after 29 days, was closed after cafe staff complained about mice. “The [11th Street] location has a little rodent problem right now,” said a cafe employee, who asked not to be named for fear of getting in trouble with management. “Everybody uses the side doors, and people sometimes leave that open, so when that happens, rodents tend to get in and that causes a problem for us because we’re an establishment — we can’t have rats just running all over the place.”
The Free Press spoke with several O Cafe employees at multiple locations to gather information for this story. O Cafe’s owners did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“It’s bad for business,” the employee said.
O Cafe’s website does not advertise for the Lang cafe location, but does advertise the 16th St New School location.
Students have expressed concern in the time being of the employee’s not having work hours at O Cafe. The employee said that their coworker who usually works at the West Village location came into the 16th Street location this week.
“The people who work here and the employees are fantastic,” said fourth-year Uma Mohanty, a global studies major at The New School. “I hope anything having to do with the O Cafe being closed doesn’t have to do with them.”
“It’s weird coming here [now] because it’s such a staple part of this building,” Mohanty said. “It’s weird to have it be closed.”
These three student’s began to reminisce that the O Cafe location used to be similar to the cafeteria in the University Center. The O Cafe, which opened in 2018, replaced a grab-and-go cafeteria.
“It’s expensive,” said Summer Wojitas, fourth-year global studies and communication design student. “But it’s worth it because of the location.”
A few students were asking the employees at the 16th Street O Cafe location when the Lang location would be up and running again. “I come there for cheese balls,” said Ashinique Spivey, fourth year global studies and history major.
The cafe’s operators were anticipating a health inspection by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene soon, the employee said, prompting management to close the Lang Cafe location before potentially being fined.
“[My boss] decided to close that location until the school decided to do something about it. He emailed them tons of times telling them to do something, and they didn’t want to do nothing, so I think that’s why he just decided to close and then I think now the school will take him seriously,” the employee said. The New School said that O Cafe workers are direct employees of O Cafe and are paid by O Cafe.
Another employee expressed their concern with the locked refrigerator that sits outside the Lang O Cafe location, saying that students have opened the refrigerator and taken non-perishable items that O Cafe owners were keeping there until the re-opening.
A New School spokesperson confirmed the mouse problem and told the Free Press that facilities-related work needed to occur in the building, saying that the “work encompassed reinforcing building access points which will restrict mice activity.”
“They have to keep clean because we’re serving food, we want to keep things as clean as possible.” the employee said.