By SUSAN JONES
As of this week, many of the dining options on Pitt’s Oakland campus are open again, but you’ll probably have to do a temperature check to get into the buildings where they’re housed.
The Compass Group took over as Pitt’s dining provider in July, after winning the contract from long-time vendor Sodexo.
Schenley Café in William Pitt Union and Cathedral Café in the Cathedral of Learning both have a few new offerings. Plus, a pop-up location on the back patio outside Posvar Hall — called the Hub at Posvar — offers meal service to students on dining plans and has some vendors open to everyone.
Joining Pizza Hut and Taco Bell at Schenley Café are Create, with made-to-order salads and sandwiches; Ft. Pitt Subs; and True Burger. The Roost, a chicken purveyor, and Cathedral Sushi are open at the Cathedral Café, and Pom & Honey, which offers healthy salads, grain bowls and wraps is set to open later this semester.
Also, Cathedral Coffee is hanging around for another year. Philadelphia-based Saxbys was scheduled to open in that location and where Cup & Chaucer is in Hillman Library this year, but that plan has been pushed off until fall 2021. Cup & Chaucer will remain closed; no food is allowed in the libraries so that people can remain masked at all times.
Pitt Eats has partnered with four local coffer purveyors — Pittsburgh-based The Coffee Tree Roasters, de Fer and La Prima, and Lancaster-based Square One Coffee — to supply the campus’ 13 coffee locations. Joe Beaman, director of Dining Services at Pitt, says the University’s goal is “to be known as the number one coffee campus in the nation (Coffee U).”
Ft. Pitt Subs, Create and Pom & Honey all are available to the public at the Hub at Posvar in addition to the extra residential dining station, which was created to help de-densify the main student dining halls. “The University intends to offer these additional dining options until further notice, as we continue to monitor The Eatery at the Towers (formerly Market Central) and The Perch at Sutherland to support physical distancing protocols,” Beaman said.
David DeJong, acting senior vice chancellor for Business & Operations, said there are discussions about putting space heaters on the patio for when the weather gets cooler.
For the indoor dining locations, expect to be stopped by Landmark Security staff now or the new Building Safety Concierges starting Sept. 14 to swipe your Pitt ID and get a thermal scan, DeJong said. Only people with Pitt IDs will be allowed into the buildings.
Chick-Fil-A, Burrito Bowl and Steel City Subs & Sushi continue to operate at the Petersen Events Center, and Forbes Street Market is open daily. For a full list of hours, go to the dineoncampus.com/pitt website.
For staff and faculty who want to use their Pitt IDs to pay for on-campus dining, Beaman said, the Lunch Money program will continue operating as it has. In the spring, they hope to roll out a “a new program that aims to further engage Pitt community members in our campus dining offerings, … with an emphasis on faculty and staff engagement.”
And what about those cute, little rolling coolers from Starship that debuted last year? “We are currently looking at the best methods for food delivery services on campus,” Beaman said. “The Starship program is in discussions with our new food service provider, Compass Group, and we’ll continue to discuss dining innovation opportunities in the future to serve the Pitt community.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 412-648-4294.
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