Jim Wulforst, director of dining services, said he plans to make a number of changes to the Oak Room and the Faculty Commons-facilities he called "old, tired and mediocre"-in a move partially motivated by the recent success of the Devil's Den.
"Right now the Oak Room is a place where students go to burn up points," Wulforst said, adding that they should be receiving higher quality food for their money. The Oak Room is not producing financially, he continued, citing a $50,000 drop in sales this year as compared to last year. "From a business perspective," he said, "we're way off."
Reacting to the financial decline, Wulforst said he has looked at all aspects of the operation-from menu options to quality of service to the restaurant's atmosphere-and found several ways the facility can improve.
Attempting to develop a new menu that caters more to customer requests, Wulforst said he asked members of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee to gather menus from all of their favorite Durham-area eating establishments.
"We're compiling a menu now," he said. "You will see some of the items offered at Chili's, Damon's, Parizade and George's Gourmet Garage."
To complement the standard a-la-carte menu, Wulforst said he is looking to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet option. Inferring from a large increase in the volume of take-out orders at the restaurant, Wulforst said students may feel limited by the speed of service. By adding a buffet, he said, more students will be able to afford the time it takes to eat at the Oak Room.
Wulforst said he plans to test some of the new a-la-carte menu and buffet items during the last two weeks of this semester. A typical buffet, he continued, would include a beef, chicken, fish and vegetarian entree, along with salads and desserts.
In addition to altering the Oak Room, Wulforst is also investigating similar changes to the Faculty Commons, the dining area immediately adjacent to the restaurant. Potential additions include an expanded menu, a buffet and wait service, he said.
Wulforst expects improvements to the Oak Room and the Faculty Commons to cost dining services less than $10,000-money that will most likely come from some of the Devil's Den's profits. Potential costs include adding new kitchen equipment and hiring additional staff. In outlining his plans, Wulforst said one of his primary goals would be "to keep students gainfully employed."
Although 20 student members of the Oak Room staff wrote a letter to the editor in the April 14 edition of The Chronicle that outlined objections to a buffet-style restaurant-which, they suggested, include the potential loss of student jobs-members of the staff have since said they may have spoken too soon.
Trinity senior Debbie Wojcik, a waitress at the Oak Room and student manager of the Devil's Den, said Oak Room staff members and Wulforst meet today to clear up any misunderstandings about the future of the Oak Room.
"The purpose for the meeting is to create a forum where we can discuss the changes and clear everything up," Wojcik said. "[Wulforst] has a priority in making students aware of the facts, and right now students feel frustrated that they have been the recipients of rumors."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.