A month after new management took over the Oak Room, the eatery seems to be experiencing some growing pains.
With the number of transactions down by roughly 25 percent over last year, dining officials are coping with the difficulties of developing an upscale restaurant on a college campus, and are looking for ways to attract more customers.
"I'm very concerned that we're not remotely close to the number of meals we were serving last year.... I'd hate to think that something we've spent so much time on is running the risk of closing," said Jim Wulforst, director of dining services.
But Maggie Radzwiller, manager of the Oak Room, said it is too soon to evaluate the Oak Room's business. A long-time restaurateur who helped open Brightleaf 905 and Pop's, Radzwiller said she has focused the first month of business on training.
"If you're overly busy from the day you're going, you're not training. You've got to go slow. The official term is soft opening," she said. "People are looking at the sales of the first month, and they have no business doing that."
Although the number of customers has decreased, revenue for the first three weeks of October was down only five percent from the same interval last year. The average check price has increased by 25 percent, but administrators are still concerned about increasing the number of meals served.
Officials have pointed to the restaurant's late opening, lack of advertising and visibility and increased business at The Loop and The Great Hall as possible reasons for the decline in customers. The Oak Room opened Oct. 1, one month into the semester.
"Freshmen don't know it exists, and upperclassmen don't know it's new," said Jason Freedman, co-chair of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee.
Some students who have eaten at the Oak Room say that not all of the changes have been positive.
"Even though I know they're trying to improve this year's menu over last year's, I think last year's was a lot better and offered more of a variety. I think they need to revamp the menu," said senior Kelly Rogers. Rogers said she used to eat at the Oak Room once a week, but will probably go less often this year.
Senior Martin Wilkins said he likes the Oak Room's new, upscaled decor, but agreed that the menu could be more inclusive. "A lot of favorites from the past weren't there," he said. "And there were definitely some pricey dishes that might sound good, but I wouldn't get because they're too expensive."
David Randolph, ARAMARK's resident district manager, echoed these reactions. "We've heard it's a little too expensive," he said. "[Customers] like the service and the atmosphere, but they think there's not enough options."
Radzwiller, Trinity '77, is addressing this concern by rotating the menu as often as three times a semester, something she had planned on doing since she was hired in September.
"There won't ever be a larger menu," she said, citing the limits of the small kitchen, which was adequate in the past, when many dishes were prepared ahead of time or frozen. "If you look at Nana's or Pop's, they've only got eight or 10 items on the menu."
Wulforst welcomed the idea of community members eating at the Oak Room, but emphasized that 81 percent of last year's customers were students.
"As much as we'd like to be a Pop's or a Nana's, the bedrock of our business is students," Wulforst said.
DUSDAC, which must approve all menu changes, will be conducting extensive surveys in the coming weeks to gather customer feedback. Freedman added that the Oak Room began accepting take-out orders last week due to student demand.
DUSDAC has also insisted that the Oak Room hire only student and union employees, as it has done in the past. But Radzwiller said this has created obstacles in training and shift scheduling since students must plan around their courses.
Radzwiller also expressed concern about the cash-only tipping policy. Since the majority of patrons are students using their DukeCards to purchase food, they often do not carry cash on them.
Michelle Hurtado, a sophomore and former Oak Room waiter, quit Saturday in part because of the tipping situation. "Basically every time I've been at work, I've been stiffed at least once," she said. "It's awful, especially if you only get three or four tables a night."
While no decision has been made as to the fate of the Oak Room, Wulforst said that in the event of its closure, the space could be sold to a privatized restaurant or be converted into programming space.
"If at the end of the year, students decide [they] want another place, then you say we've given it a shot," Radzwiller said.
"But after three weeks, you just can't say that," she said.
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