With a bustling crowd filling Tarry House and the smell of espresso wafting through the space, Ela’s Coffee Shop, run by Student Council, opened for business on Feb. 6, 2026. In the 70-minute pop-up, three baristas, with the support of 10 other team members, brewed over 150 coffees for Hockaday faculty, staff and Upper School students.
After Director of Innovation and Collaboration Laura Day presented the idea during first semester for Student Council (StuCo) to start a coffee shop, members of StuCo opted into the project. Inspired to leave a mark on Hockaday, senior Peyton Johnson serves as a co-manager of Ela’s.
“It started in a big student council meeting, and we took it outside and built it with Ms. Day,” Johnson said. “We came up with the name and the details of the business.”
Upper School English teacher and Student Council sponsor Dr. Jason Goldstein (Dr. G) joined the Ela’s team to support the group and provide insight into running the business.
“I have a little bit of a background in the food service industry, and I thought the project was terrific,” Goldstein said. “I love projects that encourage student entrepreneurship, learning more about business and what it is like to function in the world outside of Hockaday.”
So far, Ela’s hosted a pop-up in Tarry House and a collaboration event with College Counseling.
“We are working with Mrs. Spence to find a time to fit into Alumnae Day so that we reach out to older Hockaday generations and let them know about this new business coming to Hockaday,” Johnson said. “We also hope to continue working with College Counseling.”
While Ela’s currently serves cold brews and flavored iced lattes, Johnson hopes that the business can continue to grow and thrive.
“The purpose of Ela’s is to bring a student-run business to Hockaday, and everyone has been looking for a coffee shop,” Johnson said. “I want Ela’s to become something that Hockaday students choose over Starbucks, and that they want to come support their peers and friends in selling coffee.”
After recently being named Ela’s inaugural employee of the month, freshman Mina Kwun is excited about the future of the coffee shop.
“There are so many possibilities for suggestions that people want and so many things that we can add,” Kwun said.
In order for the coffee shop to run smoothly, the Ela’s team invests time in meetings, planning and behind-the-scenes preparation.
“We worked with Dr. G to learn how to calculate the unit price of one cup of coffee,” Johnson said. “That was really helpful to understand how much profit we need to make and how much it is costing us to create and purchase the supplies to make the coffees.”
As Student Council works to get Ela’s off the ground, Goldstein serves as a mentor.
“Behind-the-scenes for me looks like guiding students through business systems and operations, profitability and costing,” Goldstein said. “It’s ultimately the goal that the students will learn how to do most of these things independently, whether it’s costing or navigating staff dynamics and training.”
During the pop-ups, Student Council members work together to execute their plans and responsibilities.
“I do whatever we need in terms of jobs, so we have people making coffee, and if they need more supplies or they need to deliver [the coffees], then I can do it,” Kwun said. “For the first pop-up, I restocked the ingredients and delivered drinks to people.”
Throughout her position as a co-manager for Ela’s during this school year, Johnson has gained invaluable skills in business and innovation.
“There are lots of parts to a business that I wasn’t aware of, and I think that going into [the process], I thought it would be much simpler than it is,” Johnson said. “There are so many behind-the-scenes moments that, as a customer, you don’t even realize go into getting the drink ready for you when you order it. That was shocking but also cool to learn about it as we worked behind-the-scenes to make Ela’s come to life.”
Goldstein feels proud of the way in which Student Council is contributing to the Hockaday community.
“Student Council aspires to make a significant contribution to student life here, and we welcome opportunities for future projects and ways to respond to the needs of our students; student dreams and ambitions can be realized with the support and the will to fulfill them,” Goldstein said.
As Ela’s looks toward the future, the team feels encouraged by the positive responses to the first pop-ups. In order to collect feedback from the community, they included a whiteboard for customers to add suggestions during the pop-up.
“We had a lot of people come for our first pop-up, and they were optimistic [on the] suggestion board,” Kwun said. “We got a rhythm going quickly, and it was organized.”
Johnson hopes that students feel inspired and empowered to embrace their own initiatives and goals after seeing Ela’s.
“I want Hockaday students to take away that they can run their own business and that it’s possible to start something from the ground up,” Johnson said. “It’s possible to create something that Hockaday hasn’t done yet, and we want them to continue it.”
