Students returning to campus after winter break will find two previous Student Union dining options are no longer open, but a new restaurant is taking their place.
QDOBA and Student Choice are now closed, according to Chartwells’ Resident District Manager Derek Roorda.
In their place is Copperhead Jacks—the latest addition to NKU Dining, offering “authentic Mexican cuisine with homemade tacos, burritos, bowls and quesadillas made fresh daily,” according to NKU Dining’s website.
Copperhead Jacks officially opened on Monday and is branded internally through Chartwells, the food service management company partnered with NKU. The only other Copperhead Jacks in the nation is located on the campus of Texas A&M University, according to Roorda.
“Copperhead Jacks is a southwestern kitchen, so it’s very much in the same vein of the Chipotle, QDOBA type of offerings,” Roorda said.
QDOBA and Student Choice came to NKU in the fall of 2021 at the same time as options like Norse Street Subs, Wild Blue, Ace and Create Chop’d and Wrapped.
Currently, Norse Street Subs is the only restaurant that remains open from these fall 2021 additions.
“Nobody wants to have the exact same thing that they’re eating for four years in a row, right? So we really try to rotate things out and bring new things in,” Roorda said.
Since Copperhead Jacks is not a national brand like QDOBA, the university won’t have to adhere to the same menu and structure as it previously did, Roorda pointed out. He said students will find that, while the food offerings are similar, Copperhead Jacks should be a cheaper option.
According to the NKU Dining website, the new restaurant offers a value meal: a chicken or veggie burrito bowl and drink for $7.25, which is the value of one meal swipe.
Roorda also mentioned that, with the impact of inflation and increased food industry costs, the university had to make a decision of either increasing meal plan costs by 15-20% or choosing a different restaurant option.
Students will find Copperhead Jacks in the previous location of Student Choice, which closed due to lack of business, the resident district manager said.
For now, QDOBA’s old location is walled off and Roorda said the university has no current plans for the space.
“It really will be developed based on what the enrollment numbers look like and if there’s a demand based on the size of lines that we see,” Roorda said. “That wall can be taken down at any time that we decide the university is picking up and now is the right time to open a new concept.”