By Vanessa Shepherd

Located on the ground floor of the 150-year-old Saint Vincent Gristmill is a new student-designed and Saint Vincent community-maintained coffeehouse. Now open to the public, the coffeehouse has been a project of a college student, as well as members of the Benedictine community at Saint Vincent.

Designed by senior Francisco Hermo, a native of Spain who grew up in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey, the coffee shop is a place students and residents from around the area use and enjoy.

The shop aspires to "give future Saint Vincent students, who maybe one day want to open up their own businesses, experience first hand what it really takes to run a business," Hermo said. Since the coffee shop was created by a student, its management and personnel are student-oriented. Hermo, whose major is history with a minor in fine arts, plans to use this project as part of his portfolio for graduate school, where he hopes to study architecture.

"I basically took this project day by day, problem by problem, and option by option," explained Hermo, who is a 2001 graduate of Saint Benedict's Prep in Newark. His family now lives in North Arlington, N.J.

"The budget was (minimal), so we all had to come up with ideas to bring the space to life," Hermo said. "We brought in furniture all made by monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey," correlating the shop's decor to reflect the Gristmill's history of Benedictine monasticism.