New Year Brings New Mouth-Watering Dining Options

UC’s Department of Housing and Food Services ups the ante on its award-winning approach to college dining with two new eateries in the Campus Recreation Center. Both opened this week as new dining options on the UC campus.

Date: 1/17/2006 12:00:00 AM
By: Dawn Fuller
Phone: (513) 556-1823

Photos By: Lisa Ventre

The Mongolian Grill at the World Series taste station

The Campus Recreation Center Complex, already gaining national attention as the University of Cincinnati’s most complex signature architectural project, will also lead national trends in campus dining. UC’s newest residential restaurant, CenterCourt Dining Center, holds its grand opening in the Campus Recreation Center on Jan. 30, as will a new lunchtime eatery that overlooks CenterCourt and Nippert Stadium, the Stadium View Café. CenterCourt and Stadium View first opened to diners on Jan. 17.

UC Food Services Director Spyros Gravas says the 393-seat, all-you-care-to-eat CenterCourt has selections that take the restaurant beyond the trends set by UC’s award-winning MarketPoint at Siddall, including seven distinct taste stations that offer a Mongolian Grill, a brick oven for fresh-baked pizzas and breads, and vegan and vegetarian selections. Both CenterCourt and Stadium View Café provide wireless Internet access. Also, in response to student demand, CenterCourt will offer later hours – a trend in campus eateries across the country.

Executive Chef Philippe Audax at the brick oven

“Extended hours and continuous service in CenterCourt are in direct response to student comments regarding dining services,” says Todd Duncan, director of UC Housing & Food Services. Dining hours will be open through 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, until 7 p.m. on Saturday and until 9 p.m. on Sunday.

CenterCourt will also be the first UC residential restaurant to feature a new “Upper Cuts” concept – specialty features such as rib eye and New York strip steak, lamb chops, crab cakes or yellow fin tuna steak – for an additional surcharge.
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The taste stations are themed around the state-of-the-art Campus Recreation Center, the final component of UC’s MainStreet corridor to blend living, working, learning and playing on campus.

CenterCourt’s seven taste stations include:

BrickYard – This is the location of the brick oven, so diners can get fresh pizza, hoagies, calzones, flatbreads, breadsticks and other Italian-baked items.
Gridiron – This is where diners can get traditional student favorites, such as Bearcat Burgers and grilled cheese, as well as grilled salmon and gyros. The taste station is modeled around the traditional American diner.
Slices – The deli center for hot and cold sandwiches on fresh-baked bread.
Home Plates – A fitting name for traditional home cooking with added flair, such as pot roast, roasted chicken, Meatloaf Wellington, Sheperd’s Pie Cups, pan-seared fish or country-fried steak.
World Series – This taste station has the Mongolian Grill and each week, the site will feature a tasty tribute to a different region around the world. Themes include the Caribbean Food Breeze, offering grilled mahi mahi wrap or sizzling jerk chicken; Taste of Tokyo, with seared beef teriyaki, tofu-rolled sushi, or stir-fry; or perhaps Taste of India, featuring curried chicken, garam masala spinach or grilled lemon-coriander fish.
Greens – Offers specialty salads such as Waldorf Salad, Cobb Salad and Tabouleh
Finish Line – The dessert station also has a pastry shop and will hold homemade breads, muffins, cinnamon rolls and croissants.
Off Sides – The beverage area.

Kiril Gallovitch at the World Series taste station

Duncan says the World Series taste station evolved from the highly successful “World on Your Plate” feature at MarketPointe, as well as special internationally-themed dining days. “In addition to the overwhelmingly positive response we received from MarketPointe diners who tried our international offerings, we also saw increased meal plan participation on those days as well as nearly a doubling of our cash sales,” Duncan says.

Gravas adds that the World Series will bring a daily international flair to campus dining. MarketPointe designates one day for the “World on Your Plate” series every two weeks, days that Gravas reports a 20 percent increase in MarketPointe customers.

With the opening of CenterCourt, Sander Dining Center, an outdated dining facility, closed on Jan. 12. Gravas says the staff at CenterCourt expects to serve approximately 19,000 diners per week.

Grand Opening Specials

CenterCourt Dining Hours

Monday-Friday
Breakfast: 7 a.m.-11 a.m.
Lunch: 11 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.
Dinner: 4:30 p.m.-8 p.m.
Light dinner (With offerings from three taste stations only: Greens, BrickYard and Gridiron): 8 p.m.-10 p.m.
(Full taste station selections offered on Fridays through 10 p.m.)

Saturday
Brunch: 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Dinner: 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m.

Sunday
Brunch: 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Dinner: 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m.
Light dinner: 7-9 p.m.

CenterCourt Pricing
Breakfast: $4.62
Lunch: $6.93
Dinner: $8.09
Light dinner: $6.99
Weekend brunch: $6.93
Upper Cuts selections: $5.95

Click here for some other morsels on UC Food Services