- Q Shack and Chubby's Tacos are both potential Merchants-on-Points vendors. Vine Sushi and Thai is not an option on the table.
- Penn Pavilion is trying out more promotional ideas and partnership with athletics, as well as introducing a mascot called Chef Blue will be awarding free meals to people picking healthy options.
- Items at the Marketplace will be labeled more clearly if they contain any major allergens.
The Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee discussed options for a new Merchants-on-Points vendor at their Monday meeting, along with other concerns including late-night options and labeling in campus eateries.
DUSDAC debated which food vendor should take the open spot in the list of Merchants-on-Points restaurants. They also discussed issues with Duke Dining in the past years and focused on ways to improve the dining experience in the future.
Contrary to rumors that have circulated, Vine Sushi and Thai will not be added to the list of Merchants-on-Points food vendors this year. Vine faced both a change in management and a change in heart, said Director of Dining Services Robert Coffey. Duke Dining, however, has been looking at both The Q Shack and Chubby’s Tacos as available options. Duke Dining will speak with Campus Enterprises next week in order to choose a vendor.
Members of DUSDAC also spoke about the lack of late-night food options. Dominos, among several other restaurants that cater to late night eaters, recently tightened its hours of operations.
“I feel like there aren't a lot of late night options," said sophomore Katie Becker. “Not healthy options [and] not even pizza.”
Meanwhile, on-campus restaurant Au Bon Pain looks to increase its late night and weekend business due to a decrease in late night sales. Their management team recently spoke to Coffey about creating incentives to promote activity.
Penn Pavilion—which looks to increase business across the board—discussed their marketing ideas at the meeting. Several new items currently featured at Penn include soft serve and hand-dipped ice cream, milk shakes and ice cream sandwiches.
“Ice cream sandwiches were big this summer,” Coffey said. “They were everywhere you looked.”
Coffey added that they recently bought a brand new grill and will offer samples on the plaza two or three days a week in order to get people to try new things. The schedule has not yet been formalized but samples are planned to be served on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Penn also plans to continue selling daily specials and partnering with Duke Athletics, including an upcoming “chalk talk” with Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe featuring special menu items, giveaways and games.
“The problem with Penn is not that the food isn’t good,” Becker said. “It’s that the people who tried it at the beginning of last year said they were never going back. It’s become largely an effort to get those people back."
Duke Dining also discussed the promotion of healthier eating on campus. Nutrition services are currently creating a pamphlet called Devil’s Advocate, which will show the healthiest choices at campus eateries, as well as general tips for nutritious eating.
Coffey said that a new mascot, Chef Blue, will be wandering Penn and awarding free meals to people picking healthy options.
A concern voiced at the meeting was the absence of gluten-free option visibility and lack of proper ingredient labeling. Junior Betsy Mansfield commended Marketplace for having a wide array of gluten-free options, including gluten-free pizza dough, but said that labeling for gluten-free options is not prominent.
Mansfield said that Cafe Edens—previously called Pitchfork Provisions—used to be the best place on campus in terms of informing the public about ingredient information, but no longer displays an allergen matrix. Barbara Stokes, assistant director of dining services, said that all on-campus restaurants were asked to double check their information because they had been told some things were not correct.
“We told all of the vendors they were better off not posting it if they were not sure it was 100 percent correct,” Stokes said, adding that the nutrition information for Cafe Edens should be displayed shortly.
Coffey added that they are pushing vendors, including Cafe Edens, to offer choices such as gluten-free noodles.
“It shouldn’t be a big deal at all—especially because there is such a demand,” he said.
DUSDAC members also found fault with the labeling system at Marketplace. Becker said it often appears as though the stickers are placed haphazardly, creating distrust towards the labels.
“There was something like scrambled eggs—something that conceivably could never be vegan—labelled as vegan,” she said. “I was like—that’s ludicrous. It’s better not to have a labeling system than to make students scared.”
Coffey said that Bon Appetit will hopefully create a more trustful labeling system, eliminating the manual aspect of labeling by digitally tying ingredients directly to specific dietary preferences and allergies.
“The beauty of this new system is the ability to filter out ingredients,” Coffey said.
Dietician Clinician Toni Apadula added that Bon Appetit is working to address the eight major allergens found in food. She said any menu item containing one of these major allergens is now listed in the title of the food.
The committee also discussed adding a variety of options to the selections served at Au Bon Pain and Red Mango.
“What happened to the sorbets?” asked senior Gregory Lahood, co-chair of DUSDAC. “I went in thinking a flavor was the dark chocolate sorbetto and it wasn’t the same. I was devastated.”
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