Your Comments:

Hey Dave, I just got finished reading Kitchen Comments and you said you wanted comments so here is mine.  First off, I want to thank you for doing such a wonderful job.  While I may not always agree with the decisions you make (I am still mad about the C-Store) I do think that you are doing a great job at trying to fulfill the needs and wants of more than 3,000 students.  Now to my comment.  I am a Senior this year and way back when I was a Freshman Chef Billy used to prepare a gourmet lunch in the cafeteria.  The best thing that I have ever tasted was HIS chicken parmesan.  Dave, it was absolutely delicious, creamy, cheesy, tender, unbelievable.  And everyone I knew who had tried this agreed that it was the best.  Now the problem is I have not seen it since my Freshman year.  The Caf does serve chicken parmesan from time to time but it is not the same, it's pretty much identical to what is served in Cate, fried chicken patty, spaghetti sauce, and cheese.  Dave can you please bring back Chef Billy's chicken parm?  I saw in the upcoming menu that Couch is supposed to have it Friday, but I have been fooled before by the Caf calling their chicken parm Chef Billy's, but it is not the same, not even close.  Please bring back Chef Billy's chicken parm, I guarantee you that anyone who tries it will fall in love.  Thanks Dave. Jessica

Our “long termâ€? customers can probably remember a lot of entrees that have rotated on and off the menu over the years.  Beyond just coming and going from the menu entrees sometimes have a tendency to change over time so it is quite possible the Chef Billy’s Chicken Parmesan is not made the same way it was a few years ago.

Hello Mr. Annis, Thank you for clarifying where the soy milk had been moved to in last week's comments!  However, I noticed that the soymilk is not actually in a tub of ice water or some other source of cold, and is in general pretty lukewarm.  If you've ever had non-cold soymilk, surely you can sympathize =).  Would it be possible to have something to keep it cool? 

Another problem, in the last week the labeling for the vegan entree has all but disappeared, and during many meals, there doesn't seem to be an obvious one anyone.  I understand that since Cambell's has put up the capital for this line, you're required to put out a certain number of soups per week, however, I'm concerned about the nutritional value of some of these entrees.  The grilled tofu & veggies and other soy-heavy entrees generally taste great - could we get them with greater frequency?

Lastly, and most importantly: breakfast.  On the first day, I talked to chef Billy about the vegan breakfast entree and he cooked me up some fakin' bacon, which is pretty scrumptious and delicious.  However, whenever I see the traditional veggie breakfast foods labeled (for instance during the breakfast-all-day days), they're merely labeled as "veggie bacon" or "veggie sausage".  Can you clarify whether all of the meat-substitutes at breakfast are vegan, or just some? Thanks a ton! Joe

The only question of yours that I can answer with any certainty is that we can have any soup or entrée on the Vegetation Station that we want.  Even though we have a Campbell’s logo on the bar, Housing and Food Services paid for that line, it was not subsidized by Campbell’s in any way.

I had to run a number of your comments past Dot Flowers the manager of Couch.  As much as I’d like to think I know what goes on in every one of our operations I’m finding that we do so much that I’m sometimes a little behind with my information.  So according to Dot: 

The soy milk pitcher on the Vegetation Station was sitting in the salad bar refrigerated area.  Dot will check to make sure it is getting cold.  If not she will put it in ice on the bar.

Dot agrees that the labeling on the Vegetation Station has not been as complete as earlier in the year and she will get that fixed too.

We have to special order a lot of the foods for the vegetation station and these items usually take 3 weeks (or more) to get.  If we miss a deadline it can be a long time between orders.  We are fighting that now as many of our special order items are gone or discontinued.  We missed the last ordering cycle so product has been delayed.  We are trying to find new products and new sources for those

All the meats we use for breakfast are Vegan and we will start labeling items Vegan or Vegetarian so that you won’t have this confusion anymore.

Good morning, First I must say that the people that I have helped me in food services are very nice, polite, and helpful.  It seems that the patronage at both the food court and crossroads has grown significantly.  Due to this growth the the lines seem to be extremely long.  This is not completely surprising considering the extreme peaks and valleys due to the ebbs and flows of students coming and going during the narrow windows between classes.  However, the wait at the crossroads seems to be as much as 15 to 20 orders in the mornings.  I would like to suggest that you open Chic fil-a for breakfast.  Before moving here from Florida I would get a Chic fil-a chicken biscuit almost every morning.  It is a high quality product and has a high return frequency once people try them. Thank you, Bill

We currently have Crossroads and Wendy’s open for breakfast.  I’m afraid our Chick-fil-A in the Union is so small that we cannot fit the required oven and other equipment needed to do the breakfast into the restaurant! 

Making breakfast to order at Crossroads is a little bit time consuming and orders will get backed up.  I’ve been told that we can sometimes be working on 15 to 20 orders at once.  We’ve talked about ways to cut down the orders and the wait by having some items made up ahead but we never stay with that line of thinking because that isn’t Crossroads, Crossroads IS made to order.

We’ll bounce around some more ideas, and we are certainly open to suggestions, your Chick-fil-A suggestion was very good, just not possible with that limited space and franchise requirements.

Wendy's is normally one of the most consistent eating establishments and always the quickest, which I really appreciate. Yesterday, however, as I took my to-go bag over the the FAC to get ready for rehearsal, I opened up my box of delicious chicken tenders to find that they weren't delicious at all. They were WAY overcooked and tasted of rubber and concrete mix. It was very sad and I didn't have enough time to go back. Please help me Dave.

I understand that David Willis, the Manager at Wendy’s contacted you about this problem.  Was everything worked out to your satisfaction?  I know David takes the quality of his food and service very seriously.  We both appreciate you taking the time to let us know something wasn’t right.

At the start of this school year, the selection of food, especially vegetarian food was pretty good in the Couch cafeteria.  However, I have noticed lately that less food is being available.  This is obvious in the vegetarian/vegan line.  For example, today there was no vegetarian food available at dinner.  I looked up the menu online, and it listed many options that were not available.  This makes it very difficult for the vegetarian and vegan students. I am not sure why this is happening, but it really upsets me that a student can get so many different meat options, but the vegetarians are reduced to about 2 options or like today none.  When there is food available in the vegetarian line, it is often just fake meat, like soy beef chili, which most vegetarians do not even eat.  The majority of vegetarians stay away from processed fake meat products, and instead they want to healthy organic vegetables. I hope this will not be an ongoing problem throughout the school year.  Thank you,  Phillip Snodgrass

We do have our ups and downs Phillip.  I usually try not to make excuses but I will this one time.  Cathy, our chef over Vegetation Station has been out due to illness.  We have some fantastic folks filling in but the area misses her touch.  I have asked Dot to see what she can do.

Hey Dave, Last year you used to have potato wedges in the hot bar at Cate, but I haven't seem them in a really long time.  Is there any way you can bring them back and offer them occasionly in the hot bar?  Also I think it would be great if you could offer more choices in the hot bar, it seems that it is the same thing every day, or at the very most every other day.  Thanks.

Jessica

Sure, we can add some potato wedges to the hot bar.  We do make a small attempt to rotate items on the hot bar but to tell you the truth we get complaints when we don’t have _______ (your favorite, fill in the blank) on the line everyday.  After a while it just seems easier to serve the same thing day after day.

Well don’t let us fall into that trap.  Ask us for something new!  Stand up and say:

“I don’t want chicken planks today, I want chicken nuggets by gosh!�

“Don’t give us meatloaf again, give us beef stroganoff!�

Say “Macaroni and cheese again?  NO, No, No, we want Fettuccini Alfredo!â€?  (oh wait, that you can get in Crimson Crust, scratch that one.)  How about:

“Couch Express has bread bowl day why can’t we have a soup buffet with bread bowls and like 8 different soups in the hot bar, that would be really cool.�

“Hey, you have a hood.  Hey, you have a grill.  Can we have a gourmet burger bar day at Cate?  Like really that would be soooo awesome!â€?

Do you get the idea?  You can ask for things.  Lets end this disconnect between your brain and your stomach.  Your stomach knows what it wants and I’ll bet your brain can figure out a way to ask for it.  

Hi Dave,  I wanted to Thank you and the Couch Staff for providing us so many quality options.  The variety of food offered at any given time is out of this world. We have a diverse population at our University and it's a difficult task to make everyone happy.  Thanks for all you do for us!

A COUCH FAN!

Thanks, we appreciate the comment.

Dear Dave, H&F is wonderful and I have never had reason to complain.....untill October 4th. While enjoying the "Beat Texas" celebration at the cafe i spied one of my favorite things..punch!! Some time ago I began a purification process, for well over a year I have abstained from all carbonated beverages. So even though there was a list of ingrediants next to the bowl (there were no carbonated drinks listed) I asked just to be very sure. I was told that there was no carbonation, so i happily took a cup. After gulping down the last drop, i looked up to see the lady mixing more punch, to which she added a CARBONATED BEVERAGE!!! I know this might seem a little silly, but it was very important to me. In the future could you please remind H&F workers to be very sure of the contents of what they are serving..... Jen

I am so sorry.  We want you to have confidence in us and in the information we give you so I can see where you would be upset that you were told one thing but observed another.  I appreciate you bringing this to our attention.  We will try to do better.

You know, Crossroads is arguably the best Food Services establishment on campus.  There's only one thing missing...chili!!!  You need chili at crossroads to go between the fries and the cheese, Dave.  There are a thousand other things it can be used for too, but that's the most important.  I'm sure you know the staff at Crossroads is absolutely fantabulous, especially Ali and Sandy...and Chris.  They should all get raises, or free chili or something.  Anywhoo...thanks for the things you do. –Batman

I think chili sounds like a great idea.  I’d like to see us serve it on a regular basis.  Just think, of the possibilities!  A big bowl of chili with cheddar cheese on top, Frito Chili Pie, chili burgers, it sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

Dave - My roommate and I, both returning sophomores this year, are back in part because we've always enjoyed the accessibility of meals here on campus.  There are plenty of other reasons we're around, too, but that's been one of them.  We moved into Adams this year, looking forward to having BK available to us late into the night - always a help with studies.

Unfortunately, as I'm sure you're aware, "late" doesn't exactly describe their operating hours.  I understand there's probably staffing issues and so forth.  I understand that having it open till 4:00 is difficult to maintain.  I mainly would like to see some consistency.  If BK is going to be open till 2, then they need to be open till 2, period.  If they're not, they need to not.  And if something comes up and they have to close early, at least a sign with an explanation and an apology for the inconvenience would be nice.  Crossroads is the only 24/7 place on campus, and honestly, when it's 1:30 am and I'm tired and just wanting a quick bite, I'm not going to walk all the way up there.  If BK needs to be closed, so be it, but at the very least I and all the other students around here need to be able to know that one way or the other.

Honestly, I miss the 4 am close time.  I understand many of the issues with that, and sympathize.  It'd simply be nice to have some reliability.  Thanks! - Chris

Burger King doesn’t have the same hours they had last year.  It’s pretty much as you already stated, staffing is a big part of the decision to close earlier.  Our lower numbers in housing also has had an effect.  BK’s late hours came about when we had 600 more students in the residence halls.  Those extra folks helped us keep a number of our operations open later too.

I will ask all of our operations to make sure their hours are posted and we stick to those hours.

In only two weeks we will be starting our annual Customer Satisfaction Surveys.  These surveys help us understand what you want and how well we are meeting your needs and expectations.  We hope you will take the time to fill out the surveys.  After all the surveys are done we will have a drawing for a couple of great prizes, a 30 GB video iPod and a 7â€? portable DVD player.  Of course everyone who participates will get a bag of peanut M&M’s so everyone comes out a winner!