Approximately two months after announcing that Lemon Grass, a Thai noodle restaurant, would be coming to Duke in the Fall, Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst said Tuesday the restaurant will not open in the Bryan Center.
He said, however, Dining Services plans to bring another Asian dining concept to campus.
Panda Restaurant Group, the manager of Panda Inn, Panda Express and Hibachi-San, is currently discussing with Dining Services the possibility of opening a "Panda" restaurant in the Bryan Center, Wulforst said.
He noted that the potential dining concept would not be a Panda Express.
But Tsien Ho, corporate relations manager for Panda Restaurant Group, said Panda Express, a food-court style concept, is at the center of negotiations for the Bryan Center space.
Wulforst said the potential restaurant will serve Pacific-Rim style Asian cuisine made from fresh, organic products produced locally. He emphasized that it would not be a "neon, fast-food type" Chinese restaurant.
"I've been talking to Panda for three or four years," he said. "They have a lot of energy in their program.... This is an opportunity for us to do something unique and different."
Ho said, however, that although Panda Express uses fresh products, the food is not necessarily local and is not organic.
Mai Pham, chef and owner of Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento, Calif., said she was disappointed the restaurant would not be coming to Duke at this time. The decision was made based on the small space available and the inconvenience of having a kitchen on two floors, she added.
"I love the Bryan Center," Pham said. "It's a beautiful location, but there were technical issues."
Lemon Grass needed space nearly double the 1,450 square feet Dining Services would receive from the renovations taking place on the top floor of the Bryan Center, Wulforst said.
Wulforst added that the decision to change vendors occurred about a week ago.
A downstairs kitchen could have provided extra space but would have escalated the cost of the project above the amount Duke's dining budget allowed, he added.
"I'm certainly disappointed about Lemon Grass," Wulforst said. "[However,] we needed to be sensitive about spending Duke's money."
The amount of space Duke planned to devote to the new dining operation in the Bryan Center was decided in early March, said Chris Roby, director of the Office of Student Activities and Facilities.
The rest of the available space from the renovation had been assigned to OSAF, Duke University Union and the Black Student Alliance, he said. Roby added that a student lounge, a computer cluster and the Duke Innovative Design Agency, a full-service advertising department for student organizations to launch in the Fall, will also reside in the renovated office space.
The Graduate and Professional Student Council and Duke Performances are the only two groups being relocated from the Bryan Center, Roby said.
As Dining Services looked at options for the Bryan Center, the possibility of adding a Starbucks-an idea that had been discussed for more than a year, but was ultimately derailed because of space constraints-was revisited this Spring, Wulforst said. University officials told The Chronicle in October that Starbucks had been interested in occupying OSAF's location in the Bryan Center, but at the time no offices were scheduled to move.
Wulforst said he had met a lot of opposition to the idea of another corporate name on campus when the idea resurfaced.
As a result, local coffee company Cup A Joe was chosen to be added to the Gothic Bookshop this Fall, Wulforst said, adding that the project has not been affected by the changes involving Lemon Grass.
A larger space for Lemon Grass's sit-down atmosphere may be created on the new Central Campus within the next few years, he added.
Pham said she hopes she would still be able to open a Lemon Grass somewhere on campus in the future.
"I'm very excited," she said. "[We're] just waiting for the green light from Duke."
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