Students returning to campus this week may have been shocked to discover that Full Fare was missing.
During the summer and interim period, Dartmouth Dining Services underwent a facelift to update its menus and services.
DDS made various changes to its dining areas. For example, Full Fare changed to the Westside Buffet, the pizza and grill area in Thayer Dining Hall was expanded and the deli area previously in Collis Cafe moved downstairs to the Lone Pine Tavern.
"Our philosophy in dining services is that we don't want students coming back year after year and seeing the same things," DDS Director Peter Napolitano said. "We're not going to be malicious about making changes, but we want to make them to enhance and support other programs and departments."
Westside Buffet replaces Full Fare
One of the most noticeable changes is the absence of Full Fare. Westside Buffet, which has replaced Full Fare, remains an all you can eat dining hall.
"We now offer various chicken entrees, including rotisserie chicken, barbecued ribs, smoked meats, pastas, french fries and other cooked vegetables," Napolitano said.
Last year "our sales in Full Fare had dropped to 150 customers in an entire day," he said. "We took a hard look at the old Full Fare concept to see where we were missing the mark."
Napolitano said after speaking with students, it became apparent they were looking for a concept similar to that of Boston Market, a chain of family-style take-out restaurants.
DDS has introduced new features to the dining hall, such as an extra-large 15-inch dinner platter, red and white checked tablecloths and a reduced meal price of $6.99.
Some features that existed in Full Fare were removed. For example, the large assortment of beverages, breakfast cereals and desserts is no longer present.
"We wanted to focus all of our attention on the center of the plate," Napolitano said. "And that's what we think students want."
Since it opened on Sept. 18 during pre-season athletic practice, Westside Buffet has seen record-shattering numbers of customers.
"We've not seen this many people in two or three years," Napolitano said. "It's great seeing 360 people there in one day."
Westside will be open from 2:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Sunday to Thursday.
Food Court expands pizza area
Food Court has undergone extensive renovations, including expanded pizza and grill areas.
New ovens and warming devices were installed, in addition to added refrigeration area for pizza ingredients.
"We've created more room to produce a good, quality product," Napolitano said. "Pizza is a staple of college campuses, and our expanded section will allow us to produce more variety and keep up with the needs of the students."
Food Court has doubled its grilling capacity by adding a second grill and now features hand cut french fries.
"We are always looking for signature items that are unique and can only be purchased at specific locations," Napolitano said.
With the addition of a bank of fryolators near the grill, food preparation will be completed in front of the student instead of behind the scenes and in the kitchen.
"The marche cooking style [cooking in front of the customer] is really becoming more prevalent in malls, airports and other areas of food preparation," Napolitano said. "Dartmouth is helping to pioneer this style of cooking, and we really like it that way."
Napolitano said the marche style cooking helps students feel they are receiving a fresh product.
The addition of a steam-injected oven near the deli also implements the marche cooking concept. Currently, deli rolls, chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon rolls are baked on site.
Collis Cafe offers espresso
Collis now offers four new varieties of coffees, in addition to an espresso bar and the traditional coffees offered in other dining areas.
"This is the first time a major dining area as offered lattee, cappuccino, and espresso," Napolitano said. "We believe we are looking at a highly successful endeavor."
Also new to Collis are Smoothies, fat-free yogurt-based drinks mixed with fruit.
One of the larger changes was the removal of the deli area in the cafe.
The old 35-item salad bar has been replaced by a smaller one with mixed salads, rice and pasta dishes and seven or eight other items. The number of salad dressings has been reduced to four.
"The Collis salad bar had the highest degree of theft on campus," Napolitano said. "People would eat handfuls of raisins or grapes without thinking anything about it while they waited in line."
Lone Pine Tavern's menu changes
"Lone Pine was intended to be a programming space, and it was becoming a dining room for a lot of people," Napolitano said. "We're changing the menu to reflect the original intent."
The deli previously housed in Collis has been moved to the Lone Pine Tavern. Sandwiches, appetizers, ice cream and beverages will now be served at Lone Pine.
"It's become more of a pub menu," Napolitano said. "You won't really be able to get a full-course meal any more."
Lone Pine tavern will now be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday for lunch and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday for dinner.
Home Plate Changes Products
The kosher deli once offered by Home Plate has been replaced this year by a Healthy Choice deli, stocked with meats low in fat and sodium.
"It seemed that the price of the kosher deli was just too high and students were not willing to pay for it," Napolitano said.
Healthy Choice sandwiches are still more expensive than their counterparts offered at the Food Court.
"The average sandwich is about 50 cents more expensive than Food Court's, but we think that price is more within students' reach," Napolitano said.
According to Napolitano, the higher cost of Healthy Choice sandwiches is not only a result of the type of meat being served, but also the bread on which they are served.
"We are serving the sandwiches on our own homemade, hand sliced breads," he said.
"If last night's business indicates the kind of patronage we can expect, then we're in for a new record," Napolitano said.
Other changes
DDS now offers its own line of bottled water from a spring in Alton, N.H. The 20-ounce bottle features a picture of Baker Library on the front.
"The water bottle serves as a nice souvenir for people who happen to be visiting," Napolitano said. "It also serves as a nice novelty to put on the tables at board and departmental meeting."
Beginning the first week of October, DDS will operate a late night snack bar in Brace Commons. The snack bar will be open five nights a week Sunday to Thursday from 10 to 2 p.m.
"We'll be offering a variety of drinks, fruit, yogurt, popcorn, hot dogs and pizza," Napolitano said.
DDS will operate Cafe North at the Dartmouth Medical School, in the area formerly operated by Mrs. Ou's.
Cafe North will offer grilled chicken and hamburgers, deli sandwiches, prepared salads, hot entrees, frozen soft serve yogurt. deserts, coffees, bagels and several assorted beverages.
"Students will now be able to pay for meals here with the discretionary accounts or by charging to their I.D.," Napolitano said.
Student reaction mixed
Some students have said they have noticed major overcrowding in the dining halls since the renovations.
"With Westside Buffet not being open for lunch, Food Court has been much more crowded," Todd Weller '99 said. "It's become a bigger hassle, and I've noticed that a lot of my friends have begun eating more off-campus."
Students said they believe the Westside Buffet will save them money and keep them healthy.
"I think the fact that we can eat and drink as much as we want for only one price between the hours of 2:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. is going to be a big factor in the health of a lot of athletes with long seasons," said Asa Palmer '98, a member of the men's basketball team. "Last year, we would tend to get out of practice after Full Fare closed at 7:00 and be stuck eating pizza or grill food every night."
Kathryn Malone '98 said she was really disappointed with the small selection of foods on the salad bar in Collis.
Others, like sophomore Eric Choi, say they have "not even noticed the changes."
Napolitano said any changes made in DDS were made with attention to student input.
"We can't react to all the students' ideas, but we will certainly incorporate them whenever possible," Napolitano said. "It's exciting to me that all of these changes have come through a joint effort of both students and administrators."
In order to gauge student opinion, Napolitano held focus groups and round tables during the winter and spring terms.
"We hosted over 140 students for dinner specifically in an effort to listen to their comments," Napolitano said.
Napolitano said he also went before the Student Assembly to outline proposed changes, read the comment cards posted in each dining area and held administrative meetings with his colleagues to solicit their comments.
