After opening its doors in September, Café 101, an Asian-fusion restaurant on Calhoun Road, has satisfied students during lunch and happy hours. | Bethel Glumac/The Daily Cougar
With a little more than one month of business under its belt, Halloween decorations on doors and windows, loud and upbeat music and a dining room full of people, Café 101 is in the full swing of things at UH.
Café 101 was the second of four new businesses to open in a strip on Calhoun Road. Since its Sept. 18 opening, the Asian fusion restaurant has grown to serve hundreds of students each day.
“(We see) about four or five hundred people a day,” said Café 101 owner and UH alumnus Billy Kin.
Café 101 experiences peak hours not once, but twice in a day, thanks to its happy hour options.
“Our busiest time is definitely during lunch, so from about noon to 1 p.m., and then during happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m.,” Kin said. “The busiest day is definitely Thursday. Weekends are a little bit slower, so we’ll probably do about half of a weekday (each day).”
With many guests visiting per day, Kin said he is excited about the progress of his restaurant’s growth but admits that it was not easy getting there.
“It has exceeded my expectations since we opened,” Kin said. “I think now, after trial and error, we’ve gotten a routine down. The first couple of weeks were crazy.”
Café 101 is now enjoying a steady flow of business with pleased customers, according to Kin.
Accounting senior Qiugheng Ye enjoys Café 101’s proximity to his home in the student residence halls.
“I come here at least three times a week because I live right here,” Ye said. “The food is good and is actually Chinese food.”
Biology sophomore Kunihiro Takei enjoys Café 101’s food and quick service.
“(I eat) the black pepper chicken; it’s spicy and has vegetables on it,” Takei said. “The service is fast, too.”
