A year after Rise Up Coffee Roasters postponed the opening of a kiosk in the CALT atrium, the college is looking for a different vendor to take its place.

Peter Kaiser, AACC’s events and food services manager, said the Anne Arundel County Health Department would require any space the coffee-and-sandwich restaurant would occupy to have a grease trap, which the kiosk does not have.

The space also is not vented, so no cooking can take place there, Kaiser said.

Kaiser said it is unlikely any coffee vendor could take over the space because the use of ingredients like cream, milk and coffee beans would require the grease trap.

“It’s certainly not going to be someplace that does specialty coffees and things like that, and it’s not going to be a place that’s going to cook food, so I don’t know what we’re going to end up doing,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said the cost of adding a grease trap to the CALT space would be “prohibitively expensive.”

Kaiser said the Health Department has to approve every food service that opens on campus.

When Chick-fil-A occupied the kiosk before it moved to the Health and Life Sciences Building in 2021, the fast food restaurant brought in already-cooked menu items from the location in Severna Park.

Beforehand, the space was called The Sunday Cafe, which served pre-made sandwiches and soup catered by the Hawk’s Nest Grill & Deli.

Still, Kaiser said he would like some sort of food vendor to occupy the kiosk.

“We’re looking at how we can get something over on West Campus to service people over on that side of campus,” Kaiser said. “And so we’re looking at a couple of different options and seeing what’s a possibility.”

Rise Up was set to open in November 2023, joining three other campus food vendors: Subway in Careers, Chick-fil-A in HLSB and the Hawk’s Nest in the Student Union.

According to Kaiser, the college chose Rise Up because the coffee shop has a “big name” with locals.

“When I say locally … you go all the way over the Eastern Shore,” Kaiser said. “Around here, people know Rise Up.”

Gabe Aquino, a second-year biology student, said he wonders why the kiosk is taking so long.

“It’s not a big deal, but I guess if people are waiting for it, at a certain point, what’s taking so long?” Aquino said. “That’s just what I’m wondering.”

Still, Aquino added: “Whatever they put there, I feel like it’ll just be like a nice bonus either way.”

Ellie Jasen, a sixth-year mechatronics student, said it’s disappointing the kiosk hasn’t opened yet.

“As a mechatronics student, most of my classes are on the third floor of CALT and I’m not a morning person,” Jasen said. “So having that opportunity to grab a hit of caffeine from a coffee shop … in the CALT building would be immensely beneficial to my ability to pay attention during classes.”