For the fifth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Concordia University. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2011."
The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee restaurant operations are likely the busiest spots for food and drink in the city, serving 20,000 people a day everything from eggs, muffins, scones and coffee to lasagna, vegetable wraps, stir fry and ice cream.
The university's operations include restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and convenience stores in 24 different locations across the many UWM buildings. Increasingly green and publicly owned, UWM restaurant operations also tries to keep things local.
The university has five Grind coffee shops, in the UWM student union, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., on the ground floors of the Gold Meir library and the engineering building and in two of the residence halls, Sandburg and Cambridge Commons.
Scott Hoffland, director of restaurant operations, says the university started development of the Grind in 2004 and it has become their most successful venture.
Grant Rogers, lead worker in the student union Grind, likes working for the university food operations and believes they do a good job serving their high volume of customers, which he says stays fairly constant from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"I'll have worked here four years in January. It suits my school schedule very well," says Rogers, who is in charge of inventory, stocking and ordering for the union Grind. UWM restaurant operations has 642 student employees. They also employ 26 people full time.
The Kenwood Inn, on the third floor of the student union, is an old favorite, serving gourmet deli sandwiches and soups. It was a popular on-campus destination in the 1980s, attracting people who weren't otherwise heading to the university for its food and city views before the East Side's dining options exploded.
"The Kenwood Inn in its heyday was a great place," says Hoffland.
Other union restaurants are located in the Atrium food court, which people in UWM restaurant operations refer to as "main street," because it is the most heavily traveled part of campus. These consist of a Burger King, Taco Bell, the Flour Shop, Pacific Wraps, Palermo's Pizza, Cedar Crest Ice Cream, City Subs and the Stir Fry. On the street level floor of the student union is the Union Station (formerly known as the Terrace Cafe), which is also a convenience store and a recently added sushi bar.
Housed in the original student union building, the Union Station is the longest running cafe at UWM, but many UWM alumni of a certain age will remember the Alamo Cantina, which was once located on the campus level floor of the student union where office spaces are now.
The customizable stir fry menu item in Union Station was so popular they could only offer it on Fridays, otherwise Hoffland says it would shut down their operations. Now "the Stir Fry" has its own identity and location on "main street."
Another hot spot in the student union is the Gast Haus, a basement bar also serving sandwiches and lots of fried foods. It's popular because of its large screen TVs, pool tables, video games and close proximity to the union's bowling alley.
There are cafes in Enderis Hall, Cunningham Hall and in the residence halls, Sandburg, Riverview and Cambridge Commons. Riverview has a convenience store. The Grind coffee shop in Cambridge Commons is right along North Avenue. There is also a late night cafe called the Palm Garden and a convenience store called the Emporium located in Sandburg.
The three dormitory cafes are for resident dining and are the most successful based solely on sales, offering a variety of meal plans for student residents.
But in terms of visibility, according to Hoffland, the Grind locations are the most successful operations. Serving Alterra coffees and baked goods, Grind coffee shops are intended to provide "as wide a selection of products as possible," appealing to greater numbers of people. At the end of January 2012, UWM restaurant operations plans to open a new Grind and a convenience store in the old Columbia hospital, which was recently acquired by the university.
UWM restaurant operations is a public entity, unlike, say, the retail spaces in the university's Kenilworth building, which have very prominent corporate tenants and a pizza shop. Located between Farwell and Prospect just south of the Oriental theater, these spaces are leased through the building's original real estate developer.
"UWM restaurant operations is self-operated and self-supporting, everyone involved works for the university and any profits are reinvested in the program. We pay all our bills and operate as close to a private business as is possible for a state service," says Hoffland, who is also on the faculty at the Cardinal Stritch College of Business Management.
Hoffland has been director of restaurant operations at UW-Milwaukee since June 1999. For two years prior, Hoffland was the director of residential operations at UWM, having come here from the University of Missouri in Kansas City where he was their food services director.
UWM restaurant services also handles the snack vending at all UWM locations (not the soda machines) and athletic concessions in the Klotsche Center and at Engelmann field.
Hoffland says restaurant operation has grown tremendously in the last five to 10 years. Providing a lot of different options to students with dietary concerns and preferences has become a priority during this time. There are a number of tofu wraps offered at various cafes, as well as soy milk and yogurt options.
UWM restaurant operations has also increased its focus on procurement of Wisconsin products, as part of the Institutional Food Market Coalition (IFM).
"We have a vested interest as another Wisconsin institution," says Hoffland, who has also been an adviser for that group since 2006.
IFM connects Wisconsin producers and large institutions in order to support the producer's work and promote statewide development. The project comes out of Dane County government and began under Kathleen Falk, when she was county executive.
"We have enough data to support the fact that every $100,000 spent on locally produced goods creates 2.2 Wisconsin jobs," says Hoffland.
The university's involvement started with Wisconsin produce auctions, which are a part of the IFM. There are three such auctions statewide, located in Cashton, Fennimore and one in Dalton, which is called Tri-county Auction and is Amish-community owned. UWM deals almost exclusively with Tri-county.
Local suppliers to UWM restaurant operations include Milwaukee producers like Simple Soyman, which provides the tofu products, and a partnership with Growing Power, which receives all the compost and coffee grounds from university restaurants and coffee shops.
UWM restaurant operations uses compostable serving ware in all residential dining halls.
UWM restaurant operations is also taking part in a green roof initiative. Executive chef Brian Vetter is responsible for two rooftop plots growing herbs and baby greens. One is on the roof of Cambridge Hall and the other is on the Sandburg Hall commons (the commons area roof isn't as tall as the residence hall towers – imagine growing cilantro and parsley at 26 stories).
Taco Bell and Burger King have entered into either licensing agreements or franchise agreements with the university, as well as Palermo and Cedar Crest, which have offered their "trade dress" to the university in exchange for buying product from them.
Hoffland says there's been no discussions yet on what kind of dining and vending will be in the future UW-Milwaukee buildings at the county research park in Wauwatosa.
"We're always prepared to look at operations and expand where it's prudent to do so," says Hoffland.
Royal has taught courses in critical pedagogy, writing, rhetoric and cultural studies at several schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Humanities at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Royal lives in Walker’s Point with his family and uses the light of the Polish Moon to illuminate his way home.
