Over the summer, University of Rhode Island Dining Services underwent its first renovations on its Mainfare Dining Hall since its opening in 2007 and are adding an all new Mainfare West that will expand on the original Mainfare with late night dining and other features.
What started as just a roof leak turned into a much bigger project for the university, according to Director of Dining Services Pierre St-Germain. Now the university is looking to expand its dining hall and make it into a more luxurious place that students can go to hang out and get a bite to eat.
The rising number of freshman and transfer students at URI has been in their mind as part of the plan for the new renovations.
“There will be about 150-200 additional seats when it is all said and done,” St-Germain said.
URI Dining Services is switching things up and reorganizing some of their stations to make room for more stations coming later.
“There is a station that many first-year students call the fusion station.” St-Germain said. “We are renaming it and calling it Crafted.”
Part of the change for Mainfare is an improved station coming for people who have allergies, so that they can be better protected and not have to worry when it comes to eating some of their favorite foods, according to St-Germain.
“We’re going to be building a completely new station that is allergen-friendly,” St-Germain said. “It’s going to have menus and recipes that are going to avoid certain allergies.”
In order to make this happen, Dining Services will now have a Mainfare West next door to the original Mainfare that replaces the Rhody Market. The original Mainfare will be adding an outdoor area for nice times of the year when students can go out and enjoy their meals in the Rhode Island sunshine.
“We will be putting out furniture so there will be outdoor seating,” St-Germain said. “There will be a fence with a privacy wall that students can go in and out of.”
Mainfare West will also include a deli and crafted section for students, so they will continue to be able to create their own custom meals, but now instead of just using the GrubHub app, the goal will be to let students be able to get their meal cooked to order right there, so they have a much quicker option.
“In the last several years, students have placed orders through their GrubHub app,” St-Germain said. “Now we’re going to look to have students make their own dishes.”
URI Dining Services is switching things up and reorganizing some of their stations to make room for more stations coming later.
“There is a station that many first-year students call the fusion station.” Director of Dining and Conference Services Pierre St-Germain said. “We are renaming it and calling it Crafted.”
Late nights when students are still hungry, they will be able to get some treats from the dining hall as they are switching over the dining hall to be open for later hours.
“At roughly eight o’clock, the area gets closed,” St-Germain said. “It will be open to students wanting later hours of service.”
Pizza and pasta, consistently popular at Butterfield Dining Hall, will be expanded to Mainfare West so students can get the best of both worlds when deciding which dining hall they want to eat at.
Aside from food, Mainfare West is upgrading its look and style as they add all-new lighting, a fireplace that will be turned on in the winter and more bar-top seating as well as regular seating.
While Mainfare is back open to the public, Mainfare west and some of the other renovations to the original mainfare are being worked on as they look to fully open up as soon as possible.
