New dining hall coming for University Place

Construction is underway for a new dining hall for University Place, with completion set for October 2017.

The new hall will seat about 200 people and will be similar to Chauncey’s Choice on Independence Drive on the main campus. The current UP Café, which seats only 60 people, was never designed to be a dining hall, said Jeff Stone, director of Aramark food services.

“We have slowly added options there, but we have never had a kitchen,” said Stone. “The new dining hall will give us a full kitchen, which will allow us to cook all food right there for the students. We will have a traditional ‘home’ station that will feature a vegetarian option daily as well as your traditional meat, vegetables and starch; a new deli with in-house baked rolls and homemade soup; full salad bar with approximately 25 items; a grill station that will rotate from traditional American fare to stir-fry; quesadillas and burritos; Korean, and Mediterranean; self-serve area with vegan and allergy-free foods; as well as a granary area featuring breads, cereal and desserts.

After completion, the certificate of occupancy (CO) will be issued from the Office of State Engineer. After the CO, then there will be a period for furniture placement, installation of kitchen equipment, stocking the storage areas, inspection by the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The new dining digs should be open to serve students in January 2018 after the holiday break, according to Rein Mungo, CCU’s director of facilities, planning and management.

The location of the dining hall is centrally located for all three residential complexes. The existing building is to be demolished.

Cost of construction is $4.7 million. About 25 new hires will be made to run the dining hall.