Next year, students will be able to satiate their 3 a.m. hunger pangs without having to go off campus or wait for a delivery person. When the West-Edens Link opens in August, it will feature a 24-hour diner and a late-night coffee bar in its seven-story tower.
Judith White, assistant vice president and director of the Residential Program Review, said the two eateries, and the three levels of open lounge space between them, will provide much-needed social space on campus.
"[The WEL tower] has the list of things that people asked for. We certainly also hope that the reservable party spaces will add to the mix of events on campus, and students will see it as a space for everyone to use," White said, adding that WEL architects once referred to the tower as a "vertical student activity center."
This center will combine the eating facilities with study spaces and game areas over the five middle floors--each about 2,000 square feet--and will overlook Edens Quadrangle and the WEL courtyard. The bottom floor, which connects to Edens, will be used for storage and mechanical space, and will have a staircase and elevator to access the upper floors. The top floor, which rises one floor above the connection between Few Quadrangle and the WEL, will
The coffee bar, as well as a small dry goods grocery store, will be located on the main thoroughfare between the new dormitory and Main West Campus. Jim Wulforst, director of dining services, said the coffee bar will be open until at least midnight, and possibly until 2 a.m. Dining Services currently has a license agreement with Starbucks Coffee, which gives them the right to use the company's products in the new cafe.
"We want the class and the feel and the aroma of Starbucks," Wulforst said, adding that plans for the cafe have not yet been finalized.
The 1950s-style diner will be on the second floor of the tower. It will seat about 50 people and will have six computer workstations with Internet connections. Patrons will order their food--traditional diner menu items like hamburgers, breakfast foods and milkshakes--at the counter. Wulforst said planners opted against wait service due to costs.
A section of the diner's ceiling will be open and surrounded by a railing so that people on the floor above will be able to look down into the diner. "If you don't have openness, it would seem like a basement," Wulforst said. "This will create lots of brightness."
White added that this feature will allow for overflow from the diner to the floor above if the diner is reserved for a band or other programming event. Student groups will be able to reserve the diner and the seventh-floor banquet room; use of other floors is still being discussed.
"We have projections, but basically we're creating spaces that are pretty flexible," White said.
Management of the diner and the cafe has not yet been contracted, but Wulforst said Duke will develop a request for proposals in December and release it in March, primarily to current contractors at the University. Officials will also accept bids from outside contractors like Foster's Market, Wulforst said. Wulforst and the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee will read over the business proposals, and DUSDAC will form a resolution in May.
Chris Sullivan, Alpine Bagels and Brews owner, said that although the opportunity to run one of the eateries is inviting, he awaits more details.
"I think that once the details get hammered out on what exactly the menus and expectations are going to be, we'd love to be a part of that process," Sullivan said. "But I'm a little skeptical on how a 24-hour diner is going to go at 4 o'clock in the morning on a Monday morning."
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