After months of planning, Dartmouth Dining Services seems to be serving up their promised kosher/halal dining facility on schedule. Located in Westside Grill on north end of Thayer, the new facility is due to open on the first day of Fall term 2001.
Director of Dining Services Tucker Rossiter gave an update on the progress of the project, which was first proposed several years ago but failed to reach any stages of implementation until recently.
When the facility is complete, it will be "one of the few places in the country that offers kosher and halal entrees," Rossiter said.
The necessary physical construction involved in redesigning Westside is scheduled to begin sometime in May, with projected construction time ranging from eight to 10 weeks, according to Rossiter.
Rossiter said they had finished putting together the job description for the manager of the new facility, who would have some kosher or halal restaurant experience, and would be responsible for overseeing that the respective dietary laws are maintained.
At least at the beginning, the Westside dining area will remain open to diners in Food Court and Homeplate, as it is now, with only the kitchen facilities remaining separate.
It is up to the students, he said, whether or not it will remain that way.
There is no dietary law against the presence of non-kosher or non-halal food at the same table, as long as it remains on a separate tray, so it is solely up to the students to decide if they don't mind sharing eating space, Rossiter said.
According to Rossiter, this venture is very focused on student input, he said, and there have been many meetings between Jewish and Muslim students and the administration, talking over various plans.
Westside will probably be open on a similar schedule to Homeplate, from Sunday dinner to Friday lunch, offering lunch and dinner entrees daily, Rossiter said.
In addition, meat dishes and dairy dishes will be served on different days, in accordance with kosher and halal restrictions on combining meat and dairy.
In a further effort to avoid contamination, Dining Services will initially use paper plates and plastic utensils, until a system is created to efficiently keep two sets of dishware and utensils separate and uncontaminated, Rossiter said.
Pricing will be a la carte, like the other Dining Services dining facilities, and not a payment-on-entrance method, as was previously done at Westside.
Rossiter added that Dining Services would maintain the kosher sandwiches now offered in Food Court, especially on weekends when Westside would be closed, although he predicted that the less-popular frozen meals will probably stop selling.
Dining Services is also looking into the possibility of preparing the Friday night meals the Roth Center currently offers with Westside's new kosher kitchen, and possibly also meeting the Center's catering needs.
Rossiter optimistically concluded that, "we're hoping this will be very successful."
