By Charlotte Schnitger and Rojin Soroudi
‘Fresh, flavorful, and affordable’ – these are the core values of Science Park’s newest addition: restaurant Bico. Since August 2024, they have been alluring AUC students by renovating the corner restaurant across from the academic building. Until the end of last academic year, this location housed the well-known and well-loved Maslow café, but after ten years, the owners decided they could not continue. “We wanted our lives back. It was very hard work, and there was nearly no time for our own family or social activities,” the co-owner Rivka Reijzer-Eljon states.
Located next to Spar, Maslow was a household name for AUC students. Reijzer-Eljon recalled how the cafe created an open, welcoming atmosphere where students could “be the person they wanted to be.” Whether it was grabbing a meal, making new friends, or even sharing vulnerable moments, Maslow had become a space for connection. “There were some students who came nearly every day, for lunch and dinner,” Reijzer-Eljon shares. “They would sit with us, crying about love, there was a connection.”
In addition to the delicious coffee and food during study breaks, Maslow would fill up with dressed-up students at AUCafé’s borrels on Tuesday nights. In the partnership of AUCafé with Maslow, things ran smoothly. Maslow would provide AUCafé with a walking-distance location to a party venue and enough drinks to keep everyone on the dance floor all night, while in return the committee’s own barcrew would help out behind the bar in rotating shifts. “It was a way to help the Maslow team out when there were so many people,” Elliot Roels, a second-year Humanities student and AUCafé member explains. “In doing so, the barcrew had a fun way of participating in the borrel organization by having an actual role to play there. It is what gave us the reason to create barcrew in the first place,” he adds.
The close connection with the owners and convenient location made Maslow the perfect place for these borrels. Not only according to the students but also for Reijzer-Eljon. “It was very nice to see how the students from AUC had a very happy time on Tuesday evenings, they always had nice parties with some special theme or subject in the evening,” she mentions. “Of course, people got drunk, but they were always polite or apologized later if they were a little less so, but there were never fights, it always went well,” she continues.
At Bico however, borrels like these will be less likely. According to the owners, Bico will not be an event-focused or study space. “We want Bico to be a place where students can come together and enjoy good food and coffee in a welcoming atmosphere, all at an affordable price, tailored to the students on campus,” says Wian, the restaurant’s representative. With a great variety of food and drinks aligned with plenty of different dietary needs and wishes, Bico aims to become a new social hub for all students around Science Park during the day. Although their exact opening times are yet to be announced, they will be serving breakfast, dinner, and everything in between.
A striking difference between Bico and other cafés with a student audience, however, is their fully non-alcoholic drinks menu. Although this comes as a surprise to many students, not everyone is critical. First-year Sciences major Nil Dogan replies that she does not mind the zero alcohol policy, but is not sure how sensible it is on Bico’s behalf. “Poesiat&Kater [the current location of the borrels] makes a great profit from the drinks they can sell to us at borrels; Bico will miss out on this audience,” she remarks. With Bico not serving alcohol, traditional AUC parties and similar events won’t be possible there. However, Bico claims it will, contrary to their slightly reserved attitude towards events, keep things exciting with various Bico-styled specials throughout the year. They even mentioned being open to collaborating with AUC committees, as long as their plans align with Bico’s 0.0%-concept.
Students have mixed feelings about this shift. Tom Heyning, a third-year Sciences major and the event manager of AUCafé, states that even though collaboration with Bico will be hard for a committee like AUCafé, he believes there are other committees that might be a good fit. Besides that, Heyning believes the new café could strongly improve social life around campus. “To hang out now, there’s the dorms of course, but most of the common rooms are closed, there’s the AB, but people are studying and you don’t want to disrupt them. A nice cozy, hopefully, cheap café, to me, therefore, provides a focal point for the community,” he says.
This last point of affordability seems to be a core value to many of the students, and one of the main factors that could make or break Bico. Nil shares a similar sentiment. She sees potential in Bico if it offers affordable prices and a cozy atmosphere but expresses concern that it may not replace the sense of community Maslow provided. “I hope it’s not too fancy or expensive. What we need is a comfortable, inviting space where big groups of students can gather,” she says.
Luckily, if Bico’s plans are fulfilled, this is exactly the type of space we can look forward to. By the end of this month, they will have hopefully opened their doors for all AUC students to pass by and try out what they promote as “the perfect spot to refuel, relax, and reconnect on campus.”
The Herring 