New on-campus dining opens in the Student Union
Several new options now available for students this semester
This story was previously published in The Northerner’s print newspaper on Sep. 1.
Now open in the Student Union, students can now enjoy up to five new dining options, as well as “GET,” an online mobile ordering system for students to place orders ahead for pick up.
The new restaurants include Norse Street Subs, Ace, QDOBA, Wild Blue and Create Chop’d and Wrapped.
Along with that is Student Choice, a restaurant that students can vote on using a live Twitter feed poll. Students can vote on four different restaurants including Absurd Bird, Smoked, Melt Lab, Smash’d, and The Travel Wagon for the following month.
Also new is Virtual Teaching Kitchen, which allows students to learn more about cooking through Chartwell’s on-campus Chefs.
This comes after recent renovations that began during the end of last Spring semester.
Patrick Hannan, resident district manager with Chartwell, is hopeful that these renovations will bring more students together on campus since many students were remote last school year due to COVID-19.
“We miss our students. It has been a tough year for us, very emotional, but at the same point we are part of this family here at NKU, and we are excited to be continuing that this year with the new renovations,” Hannan said.
Andy Meeks, director of business operations and auxiliary services, hopes that this can not only attract people living on campus but also attract commuter students as well.
“We have an unusual percentage of commuter students, so we need to ensure that our retail operations are attractive in all ways to them. They need to look good, they need to serve good food, and the price point needs to be right.” Meeks said.
Meeks also mentioned working with SGA to make decisions on what new dining options to add, making sure that the new dining option would be suitable for all students.
“We spent a lot of time working with SGA for the food court on what the hot eating places are now,” Meeks said.
Amelia Smitha, a sophomore biology major, is excited to see these new changes coming, especially after a year of many dining options not being available due to COVID-19.
“I think the thing with last year was that they only had two food options open. That made it kind of frustrating, but I still ate lunch on-campus every day at the SU, and I ate dinner at Norse Commons,” Smitha said.
Smitha expressed that it was hard eating the same thing frequently. However, she is excited to see more restaurants open, as well as new dining options on-campus to try.
“It got tiring last year to eat the same thing, but I knew I had to eat. This year since we have more restaurants, and even new restaurants, it is easier to bounce around and not eat the same thing every day,” Smitha said.
Post COVID-19, Smitha is looking forward to seeing more restaurants being available and seeing what life was like in the Student Union pre-pandemic.
“Ideally, it would be nice to have all food options open, but with COVID, I know it is not possible or with maybe low staff to have everything open. It would be nice to see everything open and see what the true Student Union experience would be like,” Smitha said.
For more information about these new dining options or hours of operation, you can visit https://dineoncampus.com/nku.