Until Oct. 31 DePauw students will have to trek to The Inn at DePauw for meals. The Inn was chosen by the university as the site for a temporary dining hall until the completion of the Hoover Hall.
“A lot of other schools have simply done off site cooking, and fed students in tents, and this was really the only viable option,” said John Hecko, general manager of Bon Appetit, “It just was literally the only space on campus that was large enough to be able to house this.”
The project to move the dining hall into The Inn at DePauw took a total of three days to remove every piece of equipment. The quick turn-around was to ensure that all of the people at DePauw for the summer would be fed. “That was a challenge,” said Hecko.
Bon Appetit shares the same space with the Inn, and the Fluttering Duck, in addition to having two connected mobile kitchens between the Inn and Asbury Hall. Also, Bon Appetit shares the dish room where they clean all of their equipment and all of the equipment from the Inn as well.
“Thus far, I think we have partnered very well with the Inn,” said Hecko, “We try to stay out of their business to allow them to do what it is that they do, and they have been so gracious to allow us to do what it is that we do.”
The total number of seats at the Inn, including indoor and outdoor seating, is 360, which combined is more than the number of seats in the Hub. There are 220 in the air-conditioned building, and 140 outside with some under the tent and some outside the tent.
To prepare for the incoming freshman, Bon Appetit has decided to increase the lunch options at Cafe Roy, Cafe Allegro, Blend, and Hub Express. The Inn will not serve Late Night, but the Den will be offering late night. “Every location will remain open as was last year,” Hecko said.
“It’s all been pretty much well received. However, I do realize that it is different, it does come with challenges,” said Hecko.
According to Hecko, the move for Bon Appetit will be fairly easy and it will mostly be “products and people” that will be moved.
“We do understand that not by any means is this a perfect scenario, but it is quite frankly 100 times better than what it possibly could have been,” said Hecko.
Vice President of Finance and Administration, Brad Kelsheimer, said moving DePauw dining to the Inn is a great resource compared to what DePauw could have done. “A lot of schools when they go through something like this they are throwing up literally a full tent trying to feed people for a year,” said Kelsheimer in a student media press conference last week, “We feel really fortunate to have a facility like that, that we can use for temporary dining.”
DePauw dining has been operating out of the Inn all summer, serving summer camps and students, faculty and staff who lived on campus over the summer, but some students are skeptical about what will happen when class is officially in session.
“I’ll be interested to see how it goes at high peak lunch times,” said senior Mary Church. Church said she thinks the current organization of the Inn is solid with the amount of seating, but said she is “a little nervous” about when it gets closer to Oct. and it becomes too cold to sit outside comfortably.
With the start of the new semester, DePauw dining at the Inn will have its first big test on Wednesday.