Jess Schruz | Lariat Photographer
By Allie Matherne
Reporter
Good eats and even better business practices are coming together right off the Bear Trail.
A new restaurant called the Mix Café, located at 1700 S. Fifth St., has teamed up with the Baylor Entrepreneurship Program and is hiring students, said owner Betsy Ferguson.
“We’re not just trying to sell sandwiches, we want to teach students about small businesses and let them teach us about taking business to the next step – which is franchise,” Ferguson said.
The Mix Café already has a location in Hewitt but was expanded to serve the Baylor community more directly, Ferguson said.
“I fell in love with Baylor when I went on a mission trip to Kenya and got excited about serving Baylor—that’s what happens when you’re around Baylor students,” Ferguson said.
San Antonio senior Marisa Cruz is a student in the entrepreneurship program who is learning from the team at The Mix Café. She is getting paid and receiving class credit by working with the restaurant.
Ferguson meets with Cruz once a week to discuss the bakery menu and evaluate the business.
Opening a bakery has been Cruz’s dream since her senior year of high school, she said. She has worked in bakeries before but now gets to experience the entrepreneurial side of it.
“I got to see everything they struggled with that you don’t necessarily think about – like having to push back the opening date because the oven broke,” Cruz said.
Ferguson said she has a son who graduated from Baylor and saw a need for another food option around campus.
The food is affordable and casual, and everything is made from scratch, Ferguson said. With all the eateries available in the area, she said she hopes the restaurant offers something different to the Baylor community.
The menu, carefully crafted by chef Jesse Martinez, is “healthy, but not over-the-top healthy,” Ferguson said.
The menu ranges from breakfast tacos to chicken salad to their popular strawberry cake. They hope to tap into a catering crowd, as they are more than willing to open up after hours for parties, Ferguson said.
The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but manager Amie Deepchandani said the hours may change in the future as they adjust to the flow of students and faculty.
