Two Mondays ago, One Main Café permanently downsized its dinner menu after students complained about service speed. Aramark then introduced a late-night menu so the kitchen could match student demand.
On a typical night, 600-700 students eat at the café, said Anthony Baker, Aramark food services director at Capital.
“But [One Main Café] is not a full-production kitchen; it’s a quick order, short order kitchen with limited equipment,” Baker said. “…It’s not that we didn’t have the product or didn’t have the people. We just didn’t have the space.”
With less time dedicated to food preparation, wait time has substantially decreased. Students once complained of 30-50 minute waits—the average wait time now is 5-8 minutes, said Baker.
First-year Lilly Scheetz and junior Korri Titus ate dinner in a relatively empty One Main Café around 7:30 p.m. last Monday and waited around 10 minutes.
“…This is the first time I’ve eaten here,” Titus said. “The burger tasted a lot fresher than last year’s; it was actually warm. But I don’t like how there are not as many options.”
Contrary to what some students thought, the wait time problem was not a result of under staffing, said Baker. The café usually runs with a full staff: four cooks, two cashiers, two runners, and a supervisor.
Baker said he assumed the café would be busy in the opening weeks because of its newness factor but did not foresee the steady business One Main Café would bring in night after night.
“When we opened, we were not really sure what to expect… but we were not expecting 600-700 students. I’ve never seen that in any of the three accounts I’ve been in before—a student population that comes and hangs in one location that late at night.”
Seeing as all first-years must have an all-access meal plan their first semester, most students are limited as to where they can eat.
As a way to compete with last year’s two late-night dining options, Aramark opened up the dining hall an hour later (which is two hours later than last year’s hours) where students can eat wings, salad, and pizza.
“Our most popular item [at One Main Café] was wings… and with the equipment, you can only fry so many wings at a time and the machine has to recover… but by the time that happens, you have 30 or 40 orders of wings,” Baker said.
Baker said a lot of athletes who get out of practice at 8-9 p.m. wanted the dining hall for dinner.
One Main Café’s full menu is still available for lunch and the current late-night menu has the potential to change.
“We’re not stuck in our ways,” Baker said. “If we have a large student population saying ‘Hey, we want this,’ then we will definitely alter our menus or style of service.”
Scheetz and Titus said they would prefer moderately larger menus with longer but reasonable wait times.
Last year, meal swipes equated to a dollar amount, whereas they equate to a combo this year. A combo is any meal off the menu with fries, chips or a side salad and a fountain soda. Snacks, sides, and sushi cannot be purchased with a meal swipe.
Students can use meal swipes at One Main Café for the full breakfast and lunch menus.
Baker said he doesn’t think there will be any more changes made to One Main Café this semester. Yet, to address the ice problem, ice machines will be installed directly above the soda fountains soon.
“We’re at that point now where we can operate efficiently,” Baker said. “The ticket times were our biggest issue—how long it was taking us to get the students their food. I feel like we’ve really… found a good solution to that.”
Aramark has already met with Student Government (SG) and will continue to meet with SG every other week.
To receive more feedback, once a month Aramark will host “Dine with a Director” where SG chooses different student organizations that will have a catered dinner for 12-15 people.
