Fordham Lincoln Center’s beloved Argo Tea cafe will permanently close in May and be replaced by Saxbys, a fully student-operated coffee shop, in September.
At Saxbys, students serve drinks as baristas and manage business operations behind the scenes. Gabelli students in managerial roles will receive academic credit in addition to being paid.
According to CEO and founder of Saxbys, Nick Bayer, the management positions will include a student “cafe executive officer” (CEO) for the Fordham Lincoln Center location and below that person will be a number of “team leads.” The student CEO will not take any classes for the entire semester that they are in the position, but will receive a full course load worth of academic credit.
“The student CEO, for six months, takes no classes, but they get a full semester of credit and they have full responsibility for the business.”
The current Aramark Argo Tea employees will remain at Fordham as a part of the dining program in other on-campus locations, according to Michele Burris, vice president for student affairs.
“They will absolutely continue to be a part of the Dining Program here at Fordham. Because Argo Tea closes doesn’t mean that they leave,” Burris said. “They’re hugely important to the community.”
The owner of Argo Tea filed for planned bankruptcy in 2021 and only a handful of cafe locations are still operational on college campuses. The Argo Tea website is down. Burris said Fordham was able to keep the Argo Tea trademark for a year, but was forced to replace it after this semester.
More than 50 outraged commenters expressed their disappointment in response to an Instagram post from The Observer that broke the news of Argo Tea’s closure.
Some comments on the post read, “This is the worst news I’ve ever heard,” “THE WORLD IS ENDING” and “fell to my knees in walmart.”
Argo Tea is a popular place on campus to order food and drinks, but the seating nearby is also a place to hang out and study. Dylan Stern, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’28, said he goes to Argo at least once a day. Stern said he was “devastated” by the announcement of Argo’s closure and wary about students making his coffee.
“I don’t trust students to be able to make anything nearly as good,” he said.
Penn State University opened a Saxbys location in the fall of 2018 and it has become a popular dining location on campus.
Bayer expressed his excitement for the opening of the Fordham location and pitched Saxbys’ student-focused business style. He praised his company for giving students a unique opportunity to get the experience of working in managerial positions while receiving academic credit outside of the classroom.
“This is an experiential learning business where students of all economic disciplines are going to get to learn how to run their own business,” he continued. “They’re going to learn everything that you can’t learn in a classroom.”
Saxby’s is a chain with over 30 locations at college campuses in the United States. Penn State University opened a Saxbys location in the fall of 2018 and it has become a popular dining location on campus. Addison Brvenik, a sophomore at Penn State, is a regular at Saxbys and enjoys both the food and drink options.
“Saxbys is known to be the coffee/snack spot on north campus. With it being in the business building it gets lots of traffic and attention,” Brvenik wrote.
Saxbys’ grilled cheese sandwiches appear to be a favorite of students. Five Penn State students praised the grilled cheese sandwiches as something to look forward to for Fordham students.
“I love their three cheese grilled cheese,” Brvenik wrote.
Different Saxbys feature different menus, but some form of grilled cheese is a staple at every location. Varieties include the three-cheese grilled cheese, the pickle grilled cheese and the buffalo chicken grilled cheese. Bayer said Saxbys’ grilled cheese is one of its most popular items.
“I think the Fordham students and faculty and community are going to love our cold brew. They’re going to love our grilled cheese,” Bayer added.
The price of the Saxbys grilled cheese starts at $4.99 and will be available for the Fordham community in the fall semester.
