Over the past two weeks, the campus’ latest eatery, Andrews Commons, has been put to the test by ravenous college students, desperate to satisfy their appetites after full days of classes, meetings and practices. And judging by student responses, the spot has succeeded in serving its clientele.
“Andrews has been even more popular than anticipated,” Ann Hoffman, director of administration and human resources for Dining Services, wrote in an email to The Herald.
Aaron Fitzsenry, culinary manager of retail dining, said the eatery had a “massively successful opening.”
Since then, Andrews Commons has run without any “significant problems,” wrote Hoffman, adding “we have a talented and hard-working staff who did an excellent job getting the operation open and running smoothly.” The staff is continuing to “fine-tune” the operation to make it more efficient, she said.
Andrews Commons is open five more hours each day than the Gate was and is “currently averaging 1750 credit transactions per day” — about twice as many as the Gate’s 850-900 daily credit average, Hoffman wrote. The hours between noon and 1 p.m. and between 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. have been the busiest for the dining hall thus far, Hoffman wrote.
Student feedback and past trends were used to develop the menu and hours for Andrews Commons, Hoffman wrote. The menu was further refined by members of Brown’s culinary team, who “conducted taste tests for students in the fall to ensure (they) were on the right track.”
Fitzsenry, or “Chef Aaron” as students refer to him, said his team worked on the menu for over a year and that the goal was to maintain everything people loved about the Gate while adding new items and tweaking others.
Celebrity chef Mai Pham, who hails from Vietnam, worked as a consultant and brought authenticity to the “wok side” of the menu, which features stir-fries and Thai curries, Fitzsenry said. On the pizza side, the flour is locally milled, and the pizza sauce is made on-site from organic tomatoes — a change spurred by growing campus interest in sustainability.
Students generally expressed positive reviews of the eatery’s debut weeks.
“They did well,” said Cia Mathew ’14, who praised the lounge-like atmosphere and “the comfiest chairs in a dining hall.”
“It’s beautiful — I cannot believe that they have this here,” said Amy Sit ’16, adding that she wondered how long the space would remain so clean.
Others, such as Sam Kortchmar ’16, said they were less enthusiastic about the atmosphere. He also expressed disappointment in the eatery’s location, saying he would use it infrequently, because he lives on the opposite side of campus.
But for many, the distance does not seem to matter. Samantha Paul ’16 said she knows people who eat there all the time despite its location. Dani Dichter ’17 said she frequents Andrews Commons, because she has classes on Pembroke.
As far as food, Christie Faucher ’17 said “the pizza is better than the Ratty” but added she still prefers the food at Josiah’s.
Anna Delamerced ’16 said she was excited to see Brown expanding in new ways and improving.
“It’s the little things” that matter, Fitzsenry said, from “people’s faces when they walk in here” to the comments about the automatic silverware dispenser. “We’ve put all this love … into getting this going,” he said. “We’re here to make people happy.”
ADVERTISEMENT
