After more than three years of planning, Longwood Dining Services installed a fire brick oven in Dorrill Dining Hall (D-Hall) during the university’s Winter Break. According to Grant Avent, director of Dining Services, another project was in the works before the plan for the $25,000 oven was developed. Dining trends and student and faculty feedback motivated Dining Services to carry out the oven concept.
Avent said the fire brick oven was such a long-term project because “we just ran into some difficulties getting approval and getting everything through the state process.” However, he is pleased with the results. “I think it adds a lot to the dining room, and we can do a lot of different things with that pizza oven.”
While the planning process was complex, Brenda Ferguson, assistant director for Operational Excellence, said the oven was installed at a very quick pace because “our goal was to have something new and fresh and exciting for the students when they came back [from break].”
Avent said the fire brick oven is currently only cooking pizza and calzones. The dough is now homemade as opposed to the pre-made frozen dough used when the pizza was cooked in the impinger ovens.” There’s a little bit of a learning curve, so we want to get that absolutely right before we start doing more things in the oven,” he said. Students have also requested deep dish pizza, which may be a meal option in the near future.
Dining Services plans to cook items such as desserts, casseroles and grilled proteins (e.g., fish) in the fire brick oven. Avent said the aim is “to add as much variety as we can and keep changing things up.”
Ferguson said Dining Services may even consider serving a meal without pizza when other foods are cooked in the fire brick oven as long as students can have a “carb kick” in another form, such as pasta.
As for other benefits of having the fire brick oven, Avent said the empty space where the pizza used to be “enables us to do other new things.” The counter space and impinger oven can be utilized for a mac ‘n cheese bar, casseroles, lasagna and quesadillas, among other items. Avent said this helps the entire operation run more efficiently and provides a “better dining service” overall to those who dine at D-Hall.
Ferguson said Dining Services has specific guidelines in determining what types of machinery and food items are placed in D-Hall and other ARAMARK dining locations on campus. “If we don’t provide the students with what you’re asking for, all the bells and whistles don’t mean much unless it’s meeting your needs and what you want.”
According to Ferguson, Dining Services determines D-Hall, Lancer Café in Lankford Student Union, Chick-fil-A and Moe’s Southwest Grill additions and renovations through Dine with the Director discussions, surveys distributed twice a year, focus group studies and market analysis research.
Ferguson said Dining Services is “always trying to update what we’re doing at all our retail locations.” Moe’s now features a new Wednesday special because Dining Services found the previous special did not resonate well with students. The spring semester also brought along new food items in the Lancer Café’s Bene Pizza and Java City (e.g., different types of sandwiches, salads and parfaits).
While Dining Services has not finalized specific addition or renovation plans, Avent and Ferguson said there will most likely be new additions in both D-Hall and the Lancer Café by the start of the fall 2013 semester. “There’s always something new and rotating,” said Ferguson. “We’re always trying to keep things fresh.”
