Java Pura Cafe at Rice University

Take a look at Genuine Hospitality Consulting’s work at the Java Pura Cafe at Rice University's BRC Building in Houston Texas. The cafe opened in September of 2011. The coffee shop/restaurant, which is conveniently located next to the Medical Center, serves breakfast and lunch, along with the best coffee, espresso and cappuccino in town.

Local premier coffee roaster Java Pura was awarded the operation of the sole food and beverage facility within the BRC building. Genuine Hospitality Consulting was hired to design and implement the food service portion of the project, including kitchen design, menu creation and pricing, vendor selection, and the hiring and training of the staff. We developed operations and procedures for food preparation, handling, storage and sanitation; opening and closing; food purchasing; inventory; cost control (food, beverage and payroll); and ongoing operations. We are now refining the menu, service and overall operations, including the startup of catering services.

For more photos, scroll to the bottom of this page.

The Building

The Rice University BioScience Research Collaborative has been designed as a unique facility for physicians and engineers to work together with Rice faculty on bioscience and biotechnology research. The $202 million, 10-story, 477,000 square foot building sits on 2.9 acres on the corner of Main Street and University Boulevard, adjacent to the University and in the heart of the Medical Center.

Details about the Java Pura Menu

• Joe Abuso wrote the menu and recipes, trained the staff and selected the vendors.
• Master French baker David Dennis of Le Mistral Restaurant bakes all of our croissants, chocolate croissants, wheat and brioche sandwich breads, daily. For our sandwiches, we bake his chiabatta rolls and rustic baguettes on site, every morning! We even make the croutons in our salads from Chef Dennis’ bread, adding only Italian olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
• We offer a full selection of gluten free products including muffins, cupcakes, pies and sandwich breads, all from Gluten Free Houston.
• Our bagels are made daily at the New York Bagel Shop.
• All of our salads: Caesar, Greek, and Baby Spinach with Goat Cheese are made fresh daily using the highest-quality ingredients such as home-made Parmesan croutons, capers, black olives, Roma tomatoes, roasted red pepper, Feta cheese, roasted pecans and home-made balsamic vinaigrette. Upon request, all are available with either grilled breast of chicken or poached shrimp.
• Our cookies, muffins and pies are baked fresh, daily.
• All of our plates, cups, flatware and to-go containers are BPI Certified to be either biodegradable or compostable.

A sampling of our sandwich selections, all made fresh, daily

Tomatoes, Mozzarella & Basil on Chiabatta  Fresh mozzarella, Roma tomatoes and basil, dressed with our own balsamic vinaigrette, on a just-baked chiabatta roll. This sandwich is especially great hot off the Panini grill.

Niçoise Tuna Salad on Croissant  We start by roasting whole tuna steaks, add black olives, blanched haricots verts, hard-boiled eggs, real mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes and fresh lettuce, and serve it on an all-butter croissant that was baked that morning.

Roast Beef with Bar-B-Q Sauce We roast the beef to perfection in-house, thinly slice it, dress it in Goode Co. BBQ Sauce, and serve it warm on a freshly baked mini-baguette.

Dijon Chicken Salad Made in-house from diced, whole, grilled chicken breasts dressed in aromatic vegetables, real mayonnaise and the highest-quality French Dijon mustard available, garnished with fresh Romaine and Roma tomatoes, and served on brioche sandwich bread.