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Miniature cafés produce good business for Chartwells
Carolyn Collier, Communication Café worker, hands a customer an Italian beef, one of the many new items sold there in the foyer of the communication building. Four years ago, when she started working at the café, there was only a hot dog stand. "I like dealing with all the kids, teachers and professors. They are all really nice and they gotta eat" Collier said.
Every weekday, Carolyn Collier spends the wee hours of the early morning making ham and turkey sandwiches on croissant rolls, packaging salads, setting up doughnuts and coffee and hauling a cart full of food through the Communications Building.
By 8 a.m., the Communications Café is ready for business, complete with bagels, juice, fruit and cookies.
The Communications Café, operated by Chartwells Dining Services, is one of three café-styled establishments scattered around campus.
Jack Shaw, director of dining services, said the Communications Café has been operating for three years. Chartwells Dining Services also operates one in the Lesar Law Building and has a contract with the owners of Jaguar Java for the miniature coffee shop in the Wham Building. Chartwells is also one of a handful of businesses selling food out of the Main Street Market Place in the Student Center.
"You really can't expect people to walk more than 10 minutes to a food service destination, and when people get in their cars, they're more likely to drive off campus for lunch than they are to drive to another point on campus," he said.
"Parking is a challenge anyway, particularly around the Student Center, so if we wanted to grow sales outside of the normal traffic at the Student Center, we do have to go out around campus."
Shaw said the service had been requested of a few professors and even some deans before the food was made available in the Communications and Lesar Law buildings.
Collier, who has worked at the Communications Café for three years and for the Chartwells Dining Service for seven years, said the dining service is continually adding more variety to her stand in the heart of the Communications Building. This year, Collier is serving Italian Beef and Barbeque Sandwich and Island Oasis Smoothies on top of the soup, salad and sandwiches of the past year. Chartwells also added biscuits and gravy to the menu a few days ago.
"It's a lot more stuff," she said. "They just keep addin' and addin'. But there's a lot more variety now, and I think that's what people like."
The café in the Lesar Law Building does not support the variety of the Communications Café. The dining service supplies the workers with the basic soup, sandwiches and salads, but that's about it.
Shaw said the Communications Café receives a lot more traffic through the lunch hours. He said the café pulls customers from other buildings, so it is unlikely the services will branch to other buildings on campus. The Lesar Law Café mainly serves customers from the law school.
He said he would like to see the Communications Café bring in about $500 a day, and though it is getting closer, it is still short.
"We haven't quite achieved that yet," Shaw said. "We have improved our sales through widening the menu, and over time, I think, the café will become more of a destination on campus."
The cafés in the Communications Building and the Lesar Law Building are open about 8 a.m. to about 1:15 p.m. Monday through Friday.
