Campus Dining is making changes this semester, adding a late lunch from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the dining halls and continuing to offer late night pizza from Gipper’s on its Grubhub menu. Following a resolution from the student senate, Campus Dining also plans to reinstate personal quesadillas.
Last year, Campus Dining launched robot delivery through Grubhub. After a year of meals on wheels, students are divided about the robots. But they’re using them frequently.
This past year, only two colleges in the country ordered more robot deliveries than the University of Notre Dame, according to Grubhub. The two schools that beat Notre Dame, the University of Arizona and Ohio State University, have student populations over 40,000 students.
“They’re very convenient,” sophomore Emma Newman said about the robots, “especially when you’re in a good flow of work, and the weather sucks.”
Despite their popularity, the Grubhub robots have not evaded criticism from students.
“Just because something is convenient or easy does not mean it is good,” law student Olivia Lyons said. “Notre Dame claims to care about community, but the robots are a prime example of choosing convenience over community. Notre Dame should be encouraging its students to walk around outside and interact with others. I am honestly so saddened when it is a beautiful day outside, and I see robots driving around.”
According to Campus Dining executive director Luigi Alberganti, Grubhub’s statistics on the popularity of the robots were compiled before Gipper’s Late Night Kitchen was added to the 16 on-campus restaurants.
“The idea [of Gipper’s] is to provide a late night delivery so that people can order food, and stay in the dorm,” Alberganti said.
The restaurant offers “high quality Detroit style pizza” in addition to wings, gelato and freshly baked cookies. It is operated out of South Dining hall, almost acting as a “ghost kitchen” — the only service offered is delivery.
Another new addition to the on-campus restaurant scene is Street Fare.
“We’ve heard really, really good comments [about Street Fare],” Alberganti said. “Our chefs actually did a lot of research on trendy cuisines coming out of Asia and Latin America.“
Alberganti also said that Street Fare would see some changes after fall break. Students can expect a redone seating area and will be able to order at the counter.
Students have mixed reviews on Street Fare. Not all are fans of the sushi, but the tacos were well-received by sophomore Emma Prestage.
“The authentic chicken taco is probably one of my favorite meals at LaFun,” Prestage said.
The dining hall saw two major changes this year, as well. For the first time since before 2019, the dining hall is leaving its doors open for late lunch.
“We started seeing a rush at 2 o’clock in the afternoon” said Alberganti. “I thought leaving the dining hall open was the best way to alleviate a little bit from the typical 11-1 pressure.”
This decision has been hugely popular among students who have class during prime lunch hours.
“It’s nice to know that when I get out of class after 2 that I can still go to the dining hall,” sophomore Olivia Schmitt said. “It’s only sandwich stuff, but at least I don’t have to depend on the grab-n-go or spend flex points if I don’t want to.”
Students have also noticed the absence of the personalized quesadillas this semester.
“The reason why I got an off-campus dining plan was because I’d always get the southwest salad and the quesadillas,” off-campus senior Johnny Wang said. “I remember going there on the first day and seeing that the kiosk wasn’t open. I was like, what’s going on here?”
Alberganti said the personalized quesadillas will be returning to the dining hall soon.
While the dining hall does now offer premade quesadillas on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the response from the student community has caused Alberganti and his team to begin the process of reinstating personalized quesadillas.
“I can’t tell you exactly what week it will be, but it will be soon,” Alberganti said.
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