From tableside to curbside, Gourmet Dining expands food choices

In the Marketplace, the buffet-style dining hall on Rowan’s main campus, students, faculty and staff may now feast on freshly made sushi and hand-thrown, New York-style pizza, daily specials like duck or pork belly, even kosher, halal and allergen friendly foods.

One of 18 new, expanded or reinvented food service outlets on the Glassboro campus alone, the new Marketplace seems to represent not only Rowan’s new food vendor, Gourmet Dining of Madison, but the University itself – smart, tasteful and expanding.

Gourmet Dining, which won a bid on Rowan’s 10-year food service contract this spring, provides food and beverage service to some 12 colleges and universities in and around New Jersey including Seton Hall, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Fairleigh Dickinson, Kean and Manhattan College.

In addition to serving Rowan’s main Glassboro campus with options like a roving diner truck (another is on order) and two semi-permanent “ICE” units (see below) the company operates a facility on the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University campus in Camden and one at the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

“Rowan has a vision to be the best and they’re clearly succeeding,” said George Kuzma, vice president of sales for Gourmet Dining. “Starting with the Marketplace, our goal is to match that vision, to make Rowan dining the standard by which others want to be judged.”

Among many changes Gourmet Dining wrought in the Marketplace alone, Kuzma said, was the addition of its sushi and hand-thrown pizza stations, a bakery, and a carving station with meats and rotisserie chicken. The dining hall serves breakfast all day, features “Make Your Own” stations for omelets, stir fry dishes, pasta, paninis and more, and switched this year from dinner-sized to small serving plates.

Small plates, big taste

Kuzma said food waste at Rowan, as at many colleges and universities, was historically high so a decision was made to offer smaller plates.

As it turns out, he said, smaller plates help reduce not only waste but, uh, waist.

“One of the great things about buffet-style is that diners may eat as much as they like but sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs,” he said. “We’ve found that by offering smaller plates we help to encourage healthier eating and waste less food.”

And so far, it seems, some students find less really can be more.

“There are a lot of healthy options and I like that,” said freshman Katie Giacobbe, 18, a communication studies major from Hamilton Township. “The small plates are good for portion control and I like that too.”

More options

Kuzma said to help accommodate Rowan’s explosive growth (this year’s freshmen class is 30 percent bigger than last year’s) Gourmet Dining is offering many more places to eat.

Included among them for 2014-15 are the Mobile Diner food truck (the second will be operative next semester), a pizza restaurant and convenience store by the Townhouses, Muscle Maker Grill in the Student Rec Center, and, starting in late September, two semi-permanent food service stations known as ICE (Innovative Creative Environment) units, one outside Rowan Hall and one between Bunce and Memorial halls. Customizable by theme, the units will be made from large, recycled shipping containers and set on a concrete pad.

The popular Food Court on the first floor of Chamberlain Student Center now includes The Gourmet Sandwich Shop, Sono Latin cuisine, Prof’s Pizza and Green Zebra (an extension of the popular Rowan Boulevard restaurant).

Kuzma said by decentralizing food choices – spreading them out around campus – students, faculty and staff can visit the Marketplace when they like or eat elsewhere during peak times.

“Considering the University’s explosive growth, we knew we had to be flexible,” he said. “Giving people lots of options, like grab and go sandwiches, means they’re not tied to any one dining hall, even any one building.”

He said the Student Center café formerly known as Jazzman’s offers a range of food options including Starbucks coffees and teas and it will soon be converted into an official, branded Starbucks outlet.

The Student Center convenience store formerly called the Market Basket was rebranded Ro-Go and a new Au Bon Pain, a “fast-casual” café bakery, is planned for Science Hall next semester.

Starting this year students may also use their meal plan once a week at a designated vendor along Rowan Boulevard, an option that helps Rowan support local merchants and provides even greater dining options.

While payment options vary slightly at outlets, many accept Rowan meal plans, cash, credit cards, Boro Bucks and Dining Dollars.

Kuzma said Gourmet Dining employs 242 people at Rowan including about 90 percent of the employees from the University’s former food vendor, Sodexho.

“These are good employees who know Rowan, the students, the culture, and we’re glad so many returned,” he said.

For more information, visit Gourmet Dining’s Rowan page or see their corporate web site.