Chartwells works on dining hall improvements

Photo description: Janzow cafeteria dining hall

Photo credit: Nora Betts

Nora Betts

Sower Staff

Chartwells’ Director of Dining Services Patrick O’Brien said he is working to fulfill the promises he made over the summer, including having a menu monitor at the cashier’s desk and Flavor Shot Pepsi machines in the dining hall and Dog House Grill.

O’Brien said he has not yet installed a menu monitor, which he said in August would be added to the dining hall. He said the new menu monitor would display all menu options available during a given mealtime and help students know exactly what the dining hall is offering right when they walk in the door.

“It will scroll through all the menus we’re offering on all the stations, so you can get a feel for – as soon as you walk in the door – what station you might want to visit that day,” said O’Brien.

He said the purpose of the menu monitor is “for recruitment for new students, to make [the dining hall] attractive as you’re walking in.” He said they will work to get a monitor within the next few weeks.

O’Brien also said he predicts that Flavor Shot Pepsi machines will be installed in the dining hall and Dog House Grill over Thanksgiving break. He said all the equipment is available but the Pepsi workers want to wait until the installation will not inconvenience students.

“Pepsi has pushed back on doing installs while we’re in service because basically they’re gonna have stuff spread all over: you know, equipment, tools,” O’Brien said. “It’s just not super attractive in the middle of a lunch service.”

The new machines would allow students to customize Pepsi with flavors like vanilla, cherry and lemon.

O’Brien said the overall student response to the new Swipe Plus program has been “so-so.” The program allows students to deduct the value of a meal swipe from the cost of limited menu items at the Dog House Grill.

He said students want the Swipe Plus program to expand to more than the six or eight items it currently offers, but he has to consider the cost of potential expansion.

“I think students are wanting it to expand into the other menu offerings, which we need to play with and take a look at,” he said. “From a cost perspective, I don’t know that it makes sense for us to do it right now.”

O’Brien said Chartwells is experiencing staffing shortages, which is why all the dining stations are not always open. One of his main goals is to offer as much variety as possible, especially during dinner, when he said options are lacking.

“Dinner service bothers me because we don’t have enough stations open,” said O’Brien. “You have all that variety at lunch and then you come in at dinner and there are two lines open. And it really comes down to a staffing issue.”

The Chartwells staff is made up of 70 people, including student workers and catering staff. O’Brien said he is disappointed with the lack of student workers for Chartwells, but is hopeful that more students will apply for jobs as the semester continues.

“I really thought we’d have more interest with the student body as far as employment is concerned,” O’Brien said. “It’s starting to come along as students learn their schedule and as freshmen get acclimated to campus and the college life.”

O’Brien said when it comes to pizza, “regulating the temperature has been our struggle.” He said their new TurboChef pizza oven can cook pizzas in two minutes by heating from the top and the bottom. Chartwells staff has had to adjust the oven temperatures to avoid burning pizzas.

The greatest improvement in the dining hall since the beginning of the semester is batch cooking for better freshness, O’Brien said. The dining hall now staggers when they cook batches of food, meaning they continually serve fresher items. O’Brien said the new process creates “a better product all the way through.”

O’Brien also said he has improved the dining service by opening the omelet bar for breakfast during the week.