So you have always wanted to open a cafe?

Maybe you are sitting at your desk right now – reading IheartPGH and other hilarious blogs – just trying to make it to 5pm.  You have dreams of opening your own cafe – spending your days brewing coffee and talking to regular customers.  Well here are 2 opportunities here in Pittsburgh that might just be the ticket to your own cafe with the support of some great Pittsburgh community organizations.

The Union Project
Image by 18brumaire via Flickr

Open Your Own Business – First up, the Union Project is accepting proposals for their cafe space.  If you are a long time reader of this blog you know that I am a huge fan of the Union Project and was a frequent visitor of their cafe.  For a variety of reasons the cafe at the Union Project has been closed for the past year.  Now the Union Project is accepting proposals for a new tenant to run the cafe space.  The Union Project, located at the corner of Stanton and Negley Ave in East Liberty, is a former church that has been transformed into a community center.  The church offices have been rented out to other businesses and artists, the former sanctuary is a large event space available for rentals and the basement is a ceramics studio that offers classes and open studio hours.

For the right cafe this is an ideal space – there is lots of parking on the street, the location is right in the middle of a walk able neighborhood and the coffee shop around the corner is always crowded. More details on the cafe space at the Union Project are available here.  Proposals are due on December 3, 2010 and the Union Project will start interviews in January, decisions will be made in February and you could be running your own shop by spring.

The Pancake Shop.
Image by Patrick Gage via Flickr

Manage a Waffle Shop/Talk Show – Opportunity number 2 is a little different – maybe you aren’t ready to start your own business but you are looking for a chance to run a creative project and get good benefits.  The Waffle Shop is looking for a restaurant manager.  You get to manage and maintain the restaurant side of things.  The Waffle Shop is a project of Carnegie Mellon University – the waffles and food are part of a project that gets people in the door on a busy corner in East Liberty and interacting with an online talk show.  The students and community are always “cooking up” interesting programming for the shop.  This is a project of Carnegie Mellon University – which comes with health and other university benefits.  Learn more about the job here.

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