Harmless to your wallet, wholesome for your soul

A time café is a special kind of food service company in Russia where you pay for the time spent there. Everything on the menu (including hot/soft drinks, light sandwiches and biscuits) is either free, or it costs much less than in usual cafés or coffeehouses.

The premises on the fourth floor of 12a Tereshkova Street have somehow become notorious. No establishment has managed to stay there yet: the Prime Time sports club, the Integral nightclub and then 3D Planet, another night club — a month passes, and they put up the shutters. The reason is very simple - great floor space attracts few customers and the deal does not pay off. Residents of Akademgorodok and NSU students in particular eventually grew tired of the situation. The latter decided to establish their own venture, a café for students named Campus.

Roman Filipenko, one of the café’s artistic directors, says: “One day we guys fr om the Quant Club were thinking about where you could go out in Akademgorodok, have a good time and meet friends without spending too much. We realized that there was practically no choice. Our town needed a breath of fresh air.”

Dmitry Zolotarjov, Roman’s colleague and the incumbent president of the Quant Club, continues: “One of the former presidents of the Quant Club and a founder of the NiiKuda Art Club, Konstantin Burtsev supported our idea and agreed to help. He wanted to design such a place for students that would resemble the cultural and stylish NiiKuda for the older generation.”

Throughout the summer Dmitry and other members of the Quant Club held meetings and discussions about the concept of the future café and shared their thoughts with Konstantin, who invested the money. They thought about what students lack in Akademgorodok and finally decided on a time café. This is an establishment where customers do not pay for food, but rather for the time spent there. Tea, coffee, biscuits, board games — everything is free. The problem was that time cafés are usually located in small premises so as to create a cozy homelike atmosphere, but the young entrepreneurs had as many as 1500 square meters at their disposal.

“So, we decided to take it even further. It’ll be a time café by day, a bar in the evening, and a nightclub at night,” Dmitry Zolotarjov says. “Unlike other clubs we’ll have our own excellent food; the menu was devised by NiiKuda’s head chef.”

Prices at Campus will be very student-friendly at 50 rubles per hour with an average bill of 150 rubles. Own food is allowed, although raisins and beverages are banned. The latter is quite comprehensible, but the former remains a mystery. Moreover, along with a standard set of board games (checkers, chess and so on) they have installed air hockey and an x-box.

The young people keep a project journal at www.vk.com/campus4, where they inform their followers about repairs, share photos and ask customers-to-be about their wishes. This place is created by students, for students. Campus is a large space wh ere everyone can make a contribution and their put their ideas into practice (holding an event such as a yoga club meeting for example). The visitors are supposed to organize their leisure time by themselves and there is room for everyone. Roman describes the new developments: “We have divided the space into several zones: a soft one with sofas and gorgeous views from the windows, a bar, a karaoke-room, a cinema-room. Say you want to watch a movie. You simply start a discussion in our VK group, get an audience together, bring your flash drive and enjoy yourselves!”

As for smoking, nicotine is no threat to Campus’s non-smoking clients as a comfortably furnished special zone for smokers will be available. The café is quite ready for the anti-tobacco Bill.
What is more, there will be no waiters, which means absolute self-service. The time spent at the café is to be measured by means of electronic cards. Guests will pay no more than their time spent as machines do not lie. Dmitry says: “We have a rather strict face-control. We do not want somebody to disturb our guests, so people in sportswear do not fit in.” Not only was the place itself refurbished, but also the name. Campus is a ∆t-café, i.e. a time café à la NSU. For those who are not so good at mathematics, the artistic directors explain that ∆t is a small time period.
NSU students can try the café on 7 March and enjoy the humorous show by Quant organized for the opening (see www.vk.com/quant7). If somebody is dying to visit the café even sooner, they’re welcome to participate in the general cleaning on 5 March.