“TWIZT’D CAFE IS A COMPLETELY CASH-LESS EXPERIENCE,” so reads a placard at the cash register of RCTC’s Twizt’d Cafe.
The only accepted forms of payment, according to the placard, are Apple Pay, Credit Card, Debit Card, and Twizt’d Card. This led Echo staff, until recently, to believe that students without bank accounts or phones were left without a way to get hot food on campus.
As it turns out, however, the cafe’s parent company, A’Bri’Tin Catering, does offer a solution for cardless customers.
“You can pay cash to put it on an RCTC, Twizt’d gift card. You can do that in any denomination possible. So, we’re not turning people away if they [only] have cash,” says Seth Brittain, CEO of A’Bri’Tin Catering company.
Last fall, however, that system was not so well-known. “They grab the pizza and soda, you can’t put it back, so otherwise it would get thrown away or they get it for free,” said Diane Whiting, a 9-year veteran of RCTC’s food services. “I have offered to have them come back, or find a friend, or I use my card and take their cash, as long as it’s close. Sometimes I make out and sometimes I don’t.”
“I was unaware of this process,” said Kelly Pyferroen, Vice President of Finance and Facilities about the cash-to-Twizt’d-card process.
“We are always willing to work with A’Bri’Tin to share any type of information that they want the greater student population to know about,” said Pyfferoen.
Twizt’d Cafe came to campus in 2023. Its parent company, A’Bri’Tin Catering, is an event catering company based in Farmington that recently got into the college campus cafeteria game.
“We actually started in the catering business, catering weddings and special events and things like that. The local Dakota County Tech College reached out to us to run the food service. We cared about people, cared about food, and we jumped in,” says Brittain.
They were the sole applicant when RCTC put out a request for proposal seeking a new campus food vendor. Pyferroen, along with two representatives from student life, two from athletics, and three student volunteers, took part in the selection process.
Twizt’d Cafe operates on campus unsubsidized, which dictates some decision-making. Predicting demand for food services on campus has been tough to navigate since the drop off of in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the biggest things that that we’ve learned, and this is our second year on campus, is that we operate completely unsubsidized. So, we don’t get any additional funds from the colleges or from the states to run that food service. So obviously that dictates how we do things,” says Brittain.
“We have definitely had some bumps in the road since our contract began in the summer of 2023,” says Pyferroen.
For example, a satellite cafe in the health services wing opened briefly during fall semester, then closed abruptly with a campus-wide e-mail sent on November 11, 2024. Pyferroen says she was given a week’s notice.
“I mean, we were losing, losing money every hour they were open. It was really difficult situation,” says Brittain of the cafe, though he remains committed to his mission at RCTC.
“When I look back at my college experience, some of my best memories were my time in the cafeteria with other students, like, that was kind of our thing to do, and we feel really blessed to be a part of the environment. And I wish that we continue to do more to do better,” he says.
The other food options on campus, vending machines and the RCTC book store, are both overseen by Pyffereon, who says there are no plans to deviate from current payment offerings.
Editor’s note: our initial interview contact for this story, A’Bri’Tin’s regional manager, John Tepley, passed away unexpectedly. We send our heartfelt gratitude for his service to RCTC students, and our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and those who loved him.