Food Service Catering Building (almost) ready for business
The new 8,500-square-foot Dining Hall/Catering Facility is finished, with all its shiny new equipment in place. Though there were some delays involving inspections and a certificate of occupancy, it should open in January in time for the spring semester.
“There’s still hope for next semester, maybe January,” says Jeff Stone, director of Aramark food services on campus.
Stone is anxious to get into the building as he and his staff are running out of room for the multiple food operations on campus. “Right now, all the food prep comes out of Hicks for Cino Grille, University Place, the Road Rooster and Hicks [Dining Hall],” says Stone. “We run a 24-foot refrigerator truck behind Hicks day and night. We need more room!”
The new facility, which cost $3 million, will serve as a new breakfast ($5) and lunch ($7.50) option Monday through Friday for faculty, staff and students in an area that currently has no food options.
At dinner, it becomes a 130-seat dining hall for CCU’s athletes, serving nutritious, healthy options at three stations. The first station is a hot line with a meat or vegetarian entrée, a vegetable and starch or a vegetarian entrée. A salad-of-the-day station is next, and a third station is flexible and could be a cold or hot meal – a Mediterranean Bar, a stir-fry or a pasta bar (with whole wheat pasta).
“There will be no pizza, no soda, no fried food,” says Stone. “We’ll serve Gatorade, juice and water, nothing else.” He points out that anyone can eat healthy in Hicks Dining Hall or other food venues by choosing some of the more nutritional options such as roast chicken, steamed green beans and corn, for example.
The facility will also serve as a commissary for all of Aramark’s food operations. Items like Grab ’n’ Go sandwiches, fruit cups, yogurt parfaits and salads will be prepped and made there and shipped out to Cino, UP, Hicks and the Road Rooster. There are two cooking areas and two cold prep alleys, plus a cooler, smoker, braising kettle, a large freezer, a giant icemaker, fryers, a dishwashing room, broilers, grills, stovetops and more.
Catering is another huge wing of Aramark’s food business, says Stone. In three consecutive days, food was prepared for 13 events one day, 10 on the second and 16 on the third. “Welcome to the sports season,” says Stone.
With an entrance on Tom Trout Drive (though the front seems to face Independence Drive, those are actually emergency doors), the dining-catering hall has one large office that will be shared by three staffers – manager Steve Plaisted, whose culinary and sports background (he used to coach lacrosse) makes him perfect for the job; Terry Brothers, the catering sales manager; and catering director Darrin Durigon.
Questions still remain as to which athletes will be eating at the facility, as nutritional guidelines for the various sports and players vary. “A linebacker, for instance, would eat differently from a tight end,” says Stone, who is happy not to be making those decisions. He has enough on his plate.
