It’s Friday night and you’re looking for a place to eat with the ideal combination of casual and cheap cuisine, a convenient location and an inviting ambiance. The student cafeteria might seem like an obvious choice — but did you remember to make a reservation?
Students at Eastern Illinois University are faced with just that situation. Due to popular demand, reservation-only dining has returned to the school after a two-year break.
From 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights students are treated to restaurant-style dining in one of the dorms, complete with table service and extensive menu options.
Eastern Illinois students celebrated the return of reservation-only dining, saying it offers more variety for those who eat regularly in the dorms or are too lazy to cook.
Illinois State University also has a similar program. The meals are pre-ordered, so students must make reservations in advance.
But at Northwestern, students said they usually look beyond the dining hall when hoping for a night out to eat.
“I don’t think it would work here,” said Alissa Calabrese, a Medill junior. “Eastern Illinois is in such a different location, and they don’t have access to the places that we do. For us, (restaurants are) not so much of a novelty. We can walk downtown and there are 10 restaurants in a block.”
Bill Johnston, executive director of Norris University Center, said that although he would be happy to discuss such an option at NU, he thinks student demand for the undertaking is lacking.
“Our meal plan is one of the broadest in the country,” he said. “We have constant student evaluations and feedback mechanisms, and the responses we get back are very positive.”
Johnston said Willie’s Food Court used to close at 7 p.m. on weeknights and was outfitted with tablecloths and candles. Students were treated to a wide variety of music and varied finger foods.
“When we did that, students complained because they wanted to study there,” he said.
The effort that reservation-only dining would take wouldn’t necessarily pay off, said Mike Hoing, general manager of Willie’s Food Court.
“Chicago has so much to do that maybe weekends wouldn’t be the best nights,” he said. “Traditionally, on Friday and Saturday students want to get away from campus. Maybe this kind of dining could be applicable to weeknights.”
NU dining services always is looking for new meal plan opportunities, said Paul Komelasky, district manager for SodexhoUSA Dining Services. But he agreed with Hoing that students have enough options besides dining halls for a nice meal.
“The difference between Northwestern and a school like (Illinois State) is that students on this campus are so mobile,” Komelasky said. “They can always just catch the El into the city. It’s a whole different environment.”
Some students said reservation-only dining would be best left to those with limited options or a fondness for dorm food — something Medill sophomore Dan Pieringer said he lacks.
“There’s not a chance in hell I’d go to Norris or a dorm dining hall for casual dining on the weekends,” he said. “I get too much of that stuff during the week.”
