Rick’s Cafe, a student-run ice cream parlor in Haggett Hall, was named after Rick’s Cafe Americain, the famous nightclub in the 1943 movie Casablanca. As one character in the movie said, “Everybody comes to Rick’s.” However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for its namesake.

Not many students stay at Rick’s Cafe for long, mainly because of the outdated and uncomfortable décor, which was last renovated in 1987.

“I think the atmosphere’s good. We have good music, [but] just because there aren’t enough spots [to sit], … people come in, get their ice cream and leave,” said Axel Turnquist, a volunteer at Rick’s.

Originally, student coordinators simply asked Housing and Food Services (HFS) for a new freezer. However, the HFS facility maintenance audit showed that Rick’s was long overdue for an overhaul, and their 2009-10 budget included $40,000 to completely remodel the cafe.

“[HFS] told us that they had these funds, and they wanted to do some stuff with Rick’s Cafe, and obviously we were really receptive to it,” said Dylan Yu, a student coordinator for Rick’s. “We’ve already gotten some of those new things under way, like we have a new freezer, a brand new refrigerator, and a new convection oven.”

At a time when money is tight for many students, and soon after HFS announced a 6.4-percent increase in room rates for the 2010-11 school year, $40,000 may seem like a large amount of money to spend on an ice cream parlor that makes little or no profit.

Rick’s volunteers work for free, but because the cafe keeps prices on ice cream, drinks, and cookies as low as they possibly can, the cafe does not make a significant profit each year. Their goal is to break even, said Michelle Primley, resident director in Hagget Hall.

“[Rick’s] is self-supporting, but it shares a budget within Residential Life with the SWAC - the Southwest Activity Center,” she said.

Primley explained that Rick’s Cafe takes out a loan at the beginning of every year so as to buy all the materials needed for operations. When revenue surpasses the amount needed to repay the loan, those funds are allocated to more resources for the cafe, such as new board games.

Facilities managers explained that like all HFS buildings and businesses, Rick’s needs periodic maintenance, and that maintenance is often expensive.

For example, the video projector that will be installed in Rick’s costs $5,000.

“We hire consultants to give us a cycle … of what our buildings need to be maintained at,” said Jean Lee, facilities design manager for HFS.

To offset some of the costs of the remodel, HFS facilities plans to repurpose some furniture that is currently in the HUB that would either be thrown away or put in storage during its remodel.

When determining exactly how to upgrade the cafe from its dark green paint, heavy curtains and bright orange booths (which appear somewhat outdated compared to modern aesthetic standards), HFS consulted Rick’s student coordinators to find what residents really wanted to see in the space.

“I usually just go to the [resident directors] and say ‘well what do you think we should do here,’ and in this case, they had a lot of high-energy cafe coordinators that got right in on it,” Lee said.

The coordinators were so involved, they picked out the specific convection oven that they wanted, even down to the brand. They also helped determine everything from the furniture upholstery to the curtains, fellow facilities manager Joyce Suzuki said.

After the remodel, Rick’s Cafe will likely be unrecognizable from what it looks like today. All of the kitchen equipment will be brand new, the booths will be replaced by padded chairs on coasters, the floor will be wood, rather than carpeted, and one wall will be entirely covered by a 110-by-69-inch movie screen.

Primley said that while Rick’s is currently only open for a few hours during the evenings, it will serve as a useful meeting place during the day after the remodel.

“We have long felt that Rick’s could use a little bit of a face lift,” she said, “If it’s set up in a way that’s more conducive to students being able to have meetings there or RAs being able to use the space for programming or committee meetings, you’ve now increased the use for that room, and the cost per use of that room goes down as well.”

Most of the work will be completed during spring break, and Rick’s is expected to re-open April 15.

Reach reporter Natalie Johnson at news@dailyuw.com.