Kitch After Hours
By: Emma Zeller
In Jenks, everyone’s looking for fun things to do. Small towns are great, but there aren’t many options when everyone’s bored after a long day of school. Jenks needs a hangout space for highschoolers, somewhere with a good atmosphere and no stress where students can go to just relax! Local Jenks cafe, Kitch wants to be that place.
On the first and third Friday of every month, 'Kitch’ is opening its doors from 7:00-10:00pm for an open mic for highschool students. Students can get coffee, listen to performers, and hangout with friends in a safe and relaxing environment.
After school on the 10th of September, Kitch hosted a trial run of this event. Jenks students came and got to catch up with their friends after the summer.
“There’s a really good diverse drink menu,” Finn Bray (11) says. “The environment is comfortable, warm, and fun.”
Finn, an employee at Kitch, is helping organize the cafe’s hangout and the special Halloween event, which will take place on October 30th. There will be decorations, Halloween themed drinks, and classic spooky season movies for customers to enjoy.
“It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and have fun,” Lily Lawrence (11) says. “I got to hear my friends perform music and play monopoly… It’s a great stress-free place.” When asked about her favorite part, she responded, “The coffee. Definitely the coffee. There were so many options to choose from.”
Lawrence was at the trial run of the event, performed at the open mic, and enjoyed the coffee. There is a huge selection of coffee drinks and dozens of flavorings. For non-coffee drinkers, there’s hot cocoa’s, tea, and italian cream sodas. They also have a wide variety of cookies, gelato, cake balls, cupcakes, and a lot more. Basically, a lot of healthy food.
“It reminds me of a lot of the downtown (Tulsa) coffee shops, but filled with people I know.” Sarah N’genda (11) says. “Also, since it’s so close to the school it's really easy to just go over there and get homework done.” Sarah performed at the event with a karaoke song and socialized with her friends for the first time since quarantine began like many other students.
After being stuck inside more than usual these past six months, this is the perfect opportunity for anyone to get back in public in a calm and safe environment, with socially distanced tables and masks. On October 2nd, feel free to come by at 7:00pm and enjoy some coffee, music, and socializing to start the weekend off right!
If you want to stay up to date on these events, you can also follow the @KitchCafeJenks on instagram and follow updates there.