Our Story — CTRL+ALT+REFRESH

Regina and Andrew standing together on a wooden pier at sunset, Andrew giving a thumbs up — Andrew & Regina: The two people behind Ctrl Alt Refresh.

WHO WE ARE

Hello everyone, we are Regina and Andrew, the owners of Ctrl Alt Refresh. Our space is based in Hackensack, NJ, a growing hub for small businesses and cultural inclusivity. We have been committed to this space since June 2024 and we were only able to start our renovations/construction in January 2026. It's been a long time coming (and for our close friends/family who have constantly heard us vent our frustrations... you know it's been quite a time haha) but we are so excited to finally introduce this business to the world!

What is Ctrl Alt Refresh?

Ctrl Alt Refresh was an idea born from a young and aspiring mind - an 18 year old's dream. This space is meant to be a common ground for all; the average gamer, the carbs-lover, the WFH lurker, the card/board game enthusiast, etc..

Ctrl Alt Refresh is a combination of two worlds, a PC cafe and a Chinese/Filipino eatery.

A PC cafe is a business service that allows customers to rent high-end computers at an hourly rate. We pulled inspiration from Korean PC방s (PC rooms) as they are most popular there (there's literally a PC방 at every corner, it's insane). These PCs have pre-installed programs and are updated/maintained regularly. Customers can rent these PCs for many different purposes; playing games, watching movies, browsing the internet, work/school work, and more. With the PC cafe service we are using, SENET, customers can also order food/drinks to their PC tables where they can munch and sip while they use the computers. Along with the PCs, Ctrl Alt Refresh also offers a lounge space with couches and a large projector screen where people can watch games and tournaments together (we hope to plan so many events!). We're excited to bring the PC방 experience to this area!

Our wombo combo service is a Chinese & Filipino eatery/bakery. We wanted to offer lots of comfort foods and dishes that we grew up loving. A lot of our recipes were begged for from our parents (thanks mom and dad) and while learning their craftwork, we then added our own twists. Our starting menu consists of rice bowls such as Pork Cha Siu and Chicken Longanisa Fried Rice, baked goods such as Spanish Bread and Pineapple Buns, and a drink menu with influences from different cultural flavors. There's so much to explore in both cuisines, so we plan to have a lot of rotation/additions into our menu as we progress throughout the year. While maintaining the foods our customers love, we hope to introduce some new dishes along the way and share the beauty and extensiveness of our cuisines.

Ailee, a fluffy tan dog, sitting on the sidewalk looking up at the empty storefront that would become Ctrl Alt Refresh — Our Lovely doggo, Ailee, visited our space in Sept 2025 <3. She unfortunately passed away in April 2026, but we are so thankful that she was able to see the space grow

WHERE IT STARTED

While Ctrl Alt Refresh only came about on paper around January 2024, this idea was left simmering in the pot since February 2015 when Regina graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education. After high school, Regina attended culinary school in NYC, graduating with a diploma in Culinary Arts as well as Restaurant Management. The final assignment for her restaurant management program was to develop a full business plan of the service they wish to open in the future. This project ignited a fire in her, but only a teeny tiny fire.

With her financial situation at the time (as well as her immature, young lifestyle at the time), this was purely just a dream on paper. Though she knew she couldn't do anything with this project, it was neatly left simmering on the stove, waiting for the perfect time.

From her time as a student, to a line cook, to whatever else she did from then on (she had a personal trainer phase...), Regina always loved cooking and sharing food with others. That never stopped.

Regina in chef's whites and toque behind a banquet table, standing with her parents on the final day of her Culinary Arts program — Regina + her parents in January 2015; final day of the Culinary Arts Program where students had to prepare a banquet for friends and families - Regina prepared Chicken Adobo Fried Rice (which was GONE by the end of the night)

Regina + her parents in January 2015; final day of the Culinary Arts Program where students had to prepare a banquet for friends and families - Regina prepared Chicken Adobo Fried Rice (which was GONE by the end of the night)

HOW WE GOT HERE

Fast forward to early 2023 - We were joking around about opening a PC cafe together. "Wouldn't it be awesome to build a space where all of our friends can just host LAN parties all the time - maybe find new friends to game with??" We inserted this topic into conversation with Regina's brother and his now fiancee as we were all on Discord, playing games. She suggested that we also combine it with an actual food/drink business since PC cafes aren't common in this area, let alone the U.S.. This conversation brought Regina's back-burner dream right back in front of her eyes.

After a lot of "you know what we could do..." conversations and speaking it into existence, we actually started pulling ideas together to make it come to life. We took a trip to Korea mid-2023 and, although it was meant to be a vacation, we spent 75% of our time visiting multiple PC cafes and jotting down notes of things we liked and things we didn't like. We actually felt more comfortable in the PC cafes than we did in the Airbnbs we stayed in. This comforting feeling, almost a "home away from home" feeling, was something we wanted to bring into our space as well. Coming back from Korea and having more conversations with friends and family, we felt pretty strong about the business idea and we knew we wanted to work hard to bring it to life.

Amidst all of this, Andrew started getting into building PCs (he built some for some friends who reached out!) During Regina's sporadic streaming career on Twitch, Andrew actually built our PCs which gave us more opportunity to play different games. We were able to bond more and explore more as we dove into a large library of games together. Playing games was always something comforting to us both, even throughout our childhood. We knew that games brought people together and it was always fun playing with others. This notion drove our passion to create a space for people to come together and just relax and have fun.

The Present Situation:

After our return from Korea, Andrew and Regina searched for a space where we can call home. After many months with no luck, we stumbled upon this space in Hackensack, NJ. It was not built yet as it was a whole apartment building under construction at the time. When we went to look at the space in person, it was just slabs of concrete, loose wires, dirt everywhere, and a lot of empty Coke bottles but for some reason though... we said, "this is the one". We won't lie... we thought we went into this knowing what to look for, what to be wary of, etc., but let me tell you... we got got. We signed the lease in June 2024 with the expectation that our space would be ready for us when the apartment building would also be finished (around April 2025). Sadly, it was not.

From June 2024 to December 2025, we were playing a huge waiting game. Unfortunately due to our immaturity as business owners, we hit a lot of miscommunications with our landlord and their construction team, often feeling we were being taken advantage of. These were long frustrating times as we were constantly expecting one thing and in return, we received something else. These different issues that rose from this time killed us financially. We had to have our architect fix their drawings multiple times, which added up cost wise. Our general contractor had to add services that weren't initially expected, which again added up cost wise. We were warned by fellow business owners to allocate some extra money into the budget because of things like this, which we did, but this was so much more than we expected. We've hit so many waves of fear and anxiety as we constantly had to revisit our finance sheets to add things that we didn't expect to add. It took a toll on us mentally, especially since we didn't even have possession of the space yet and couldn't manifest anything to begin with. This rollercoaster was almost getting unbearable. Whenever people asked us, "when are you guys opening?", we always had to just say, "I don't know".

Despite all of this, we had so many friends and family, even strangers, messaging us and talking to us about their excitement for the space and how they can't wait to have something like this in their area. Even when people asked us, "when are you guys opening?", although all we could say was we didn't know, it still made us happy that people are excited for our opening. Those comments really saved us. We are so grateful for the support and love we've been receiving and thanks to you all, we are able to gain the courage to continue pushing and fighting.

As of July 2026, we can confidently say we are about 85% of the way there. All major construction has been done and we are working on all the little details for our final inspections. It is unfortunately these little details that are now gnawing away at our funds and we are growing weary with how much more we need to go. Even at this time, we are still being thrown curve balls and unexpected expenses. The light at the end of the tunnel is so close yet so far, but we stay hopeful and passionate.

Through it all, we will still continue to build the space as planned. We want to make this work so badly, so we will continue to do our due diligence behind the scenes to fund this project efficiently. We want our supporters to finally experience and enjoy what Ctrl Alt Refresh has to offer after years of waiting. The combination of a PC cafe and eatery is a force to be reckoned with and we have full confidence in providing this experience.