Business students create heavenly aromas, and maybe even profits, with Flamingo Restaurant, other pop-ups

Everything smelled wonderful.

Alfred University students enrolled in Business 106 – Contemporary Business, or colloquially “Busi106” – were cooking and serving mouth-watering dishes with a strong dash of ethnic flavorings: Polish perogies and Tanzanian Wali-Nyama Rosti, to name two. The fine dining was part of a pop-up business project called Alfred’s Flamingo Restaurant, designed by Business 106 students in Alfred University’s College of Business.

Pop-up businesses, explains Assistant Professor of Business Jean Ellefson, are short-term business ventures designed to test business basics, such as pricing and process. “They’re experiments to see whether what the business is offering will actually work,” Ellefson says.

In other words, will the venture make any money? Students operating Flamingo Restaurant appeared confident they had a gold mine on their hands. By 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, they already had sold $1,000 in pre-orders. The question of expenses still required some research, but students Odays Pozo and Felicia Stewart, sharing a plate of Wali-Nyama Rosti, at least thought they were eating something that tasted good.

Other pop-up businesses were selling their wares around the Powell Campus Center, including a group of students selling 3D-printed phone stands and another group selling student-made jewelry bracelets. Earlier, a group of students had sold out of the key chains they had manufactured. Other student teams were exploring the potential profit in food delivery services.

Speaking of profit, any funds left over once the expenses of each pop-up business are tallied will be donated to charities of the students’ choosing, including medical research groups studying treatments for pancreatic cancer.

Ellefson noted the College of Business’ hands-on approach to teaching productive business practice extends into the MBA program, in which graduate students offer consulting services for external businesses already in existence. Those businesses, she said, include Sunny Cove Farm, based in Alfred Station, which sells raw milk, grass-fed beef and other locally raised and grown agricultural products.

Pictured above, undergraduate Odalys Pozo joins School of Business students Felicia Stewart, Jonathan Konnaught and David Andrews at the Alfred's Flamingo pop-up restaurant last week, in the Community Room of Powell Campus Center.