Hungry for food services at UHCL

Ryan Little
The Signal
In order to better serve the growing campus, the University of Houston-Clear Lake food committee and Aramark, the company that runs the Patio Café, are making some changes to the food services offered on campus.

Aramark is working with 10 different food trucks that will start making their rounds to UHCL.  Aramark does not own the food trucks but is asking the food trucks to come to UHCL for the business opportunity.

“In my opinion food trucks would be awesome,” said April Cantwell, digital media studies major. “As long as their prices are decent, it’ll give us, the student body, a variety of food items to eat.”

Coreanos Mexican Cuisine was the first food truck to show up on campus as part of Aramark’s new program. They were serving up food on campus  April 2.

“Our business was great; I was very happy with the turnout and enthusiasm the campus had about food trucks,” said Tom Morris, Coreanos Houston food truck team. “We would be happy to come back to UHCL if we could continue to have such a warm welcoming each time.”

For right now, Aramark is trying out the new food truck program. There will be an email sent out from Patio Café announcing when a food truck will show up next. As long as the food trucks keep having great business, they will return.

“Currently we are testing out the food trucks on campus and to gauge student and staff feedback,” said Priya Nair, UHCL dining services location manager. “The food trucks serve multiple areas in Houston and its surrounding areas, so we are fortunate to be able to have them come to our campus every Tuesday.”

The café is also preparing for when freshmen start coming to UHCL next fall. Hours of operation have been extended to stay open later to accommodate more students on campus at night. The café is now open until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. This allows students who have night classes to grab a coffee or food during their breaks. The university food committee is also pushing for breakfast hours.

“I have spoken with several other members of the committee and I believe we are next going to push for the addition of morning hours,” said Andrew Reitberger, associate director of student life and committee member, “This will definitely be necessary when freshmen are on campus for classes during the day.”

The Patio Café has also been adding new menu items to their services.  In addition to Java City, which serves coffee, and Montague’s Deli, which serves sandwiches and soups, Montague’s Deli also has specialty meals throughout the week. Aramark has added a lot of new items for this semester including frozen veggie foods. The Patio Café has daily specials that you can learn about through the café emails. Another addition to the café was the “window” where they now serve hot meals, burgers and French fries.

A recent loss to campus food services was the closure of Cappuccino Bono, which was located in the Student Services and Classroom Building and served coffee and sandwiches to customers. Unless food trucks are on campus, this leaves the Patio Café as the only place to order food. Otherwise, students largely rely on snack machines and the bookstore where they can pick up snacks on the way to class.

“I liked getting coffee from there [Cappuccino Bono] during my class breaks, but now I must walk to the other building for my coffee,” said Stacey Buell, marketing major.

A survey to determine customer satisfaction is in the works.

“We will be conducting a survey beginning next week asking for feedback on what changes customers would like to see to the Patio Café as we prepare for these new students, as well as what types of food they might like to see on campus in the future,” Nair said. “Look out for an email with the link to that survey soon.”

The Signal reporter Graham Clifford examines food trucks in Houston in this slideshow, as food trucks are making their way onto campus at UHCL and students hope they are here to stay. For more information, follow the food trucks on roaminghunger.com/hou.

Photos and slideshow by Graham Clifford: The Signal.