Student life at St. Bonaventure just got more exciting with the opening of the University's new gourmet coffee house, Cafe La Verna!
The café, featuring wireless Internet access, includes a double-sided fireplace and a stunning exterior and interior design. The interior retains the exterior brick wall of Hickey Dining Hall as the exposed wall of the café.
Other design elements include wood beams and floor-to-ceiling windows. To facilitate many needs of conversation, both individuals and groups, the café offers a variety of seating arrangements, including different sizes of tables, seating “nooks” with brick wall separation and comfortable seating groupings.
In January 2007, students selected the name Café La Verna after 19 entries were submitted in a student-only contest. La Verna is the name of the mountain retreat that was given to St. Francis and his brothers. It was a place to which Francis returned frequently and where St. Bonaventure wrote the “Itinerarium,” the foundational text for the Intellectual Journey course and the Clare College core curriculum at St. Bonaventure.
Below are pictures from the dedication ceremony, which took place on May 3, 2007.