Coffee shop opens in Moffett Center

02/17/2021 

SUNY Cortland has opened a new café in Moffett Center, Sawubona, which serves premium African coffee from Coffee Mania.

Located in the first-floor lobby, the café is open 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Guests can pay with credit/debit card, cash, Connections/Privileges accounts, and Dining Dollars. They can use GrubHub to pick up their orders.

Signature blends include Tumaini (“hope” in Swahili) and Pamoja (“together” in Swahili). Teas, specialty sandwiches, and other light fare are available. A full menu is online.

“A lot of the professors were very excited to hear that we would be having a new café,” said Jeff Scott, director of dining services for Cortland Auxiliary. “I took the opportunity to reach out to department chairs and let them know about what we were thinking. They appreciated that and gave us some direction.”

“Sawubona” is a Zulu greeting that translates to “we see you.” The café management aims to make Sawubona part of a community hub in the Moffett Center lobby for students and faculty alike. 

The coffee beans are hand-picked at high elevations in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. These beans are sustainably grown and sourced from farms that support local growers by paying well above market value. Coffee Mania, located in Cortland, freshly roasts the beans to ensure that they have the best flavor.

“We boiled it down to global inspiration, locally connected,” Scott said. “We want to really try to be aware of and engage with flavors of the world and trends of the world. It's a fun time to be involved in college dining.”

Prepared by Communications Office writing intern Chelsea Grate