Thank the dining staff for their work during the pandemic Monday, Mar 8 2021 

#FreeEinsteinBros and aramark and Destiny Smith and Dining and dining hours and dining staff and Einstein Bros. Bagels and food service and Food Trucks and John Karman and Opinion and Savannah Quach and staff appreciation and student opinion and UofL Dining and Vito Sabino Catherine Brown 9:00 pm

By Catherine Brown–

University of Louisville’s dining staff deserve appreciation for the work that they do to feed students, faculty and staff every day. 

On Feb. 17, U of L Dining announced their decision to reduce dining hours across nearly every restaurant on campus. With that decision came the closures of Louie’s Corner, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Chick-fil-A at HSC Commons.

According to U of L Dining, this decision was made regarding lower rates of students on campus due to COVID-19.

Students were not happy with the decision.

Several students replied to the Instagram post with #FreeEinsteinBros and demanded that the university reinstate the chain’s previous operating hours.

Einstein Bros. is a favorite dining option for many students on campus. The chain operates at early hours, which allows students in early morning classes or athletics to grab breakfast before class or practice. Many students depend on Einstein Bros., the Ville Grill, and Chick-fil-A to start their day.

Destiny Smith, a sophomore nursing major, says that Einstein Bros. has been her go-to breakfast spot when she has 8 a.m. classes.

“The staff at Einstein Bros are so nice, genuine, and funny,” said Smith.

U of L partners with Aramark, a corporation that provides food service and facilities. Therefore, U of L food service workers are technically Aramark employees, not U of L employees. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve any less appreciation.

Several students commented on the impact that the change had on dining employees.  

“Not only is this screwing over students but think of the employees whose hours have been drastically cut,” freshman Vito Sabino said. “These are not high paying jobs either. Seems like U of L is willing to live with impacting the quality of life for food service workers just to save a buck.”

“Think of the workers who will be laid off or will have their hours cut. How will they provide for their families,” said sophomore Savannah Quach.

The following week, U of L Dining announced that food trucks would be available Tuesday to Thursday for students to enjoy.

“The decision was made this past week to bring these offerings to campus to aid in our ongoing efforts to improve the student, faculty and staff dining experience,” said U of L Director of Communications John Karman.

While the food trucks did receive decent crowds each day, students demanded that U of L bring back the regular dining hours.

Although students had more diverse dining options to choose from during that week, several original dining options were closed or their hours still reduced. 

Yet, how many dining staff struggled with having their hours reduced or had to worry about being scheduled that week?

U of L Dining has since announced that Einstein Bros. Bagels will open again for Grubhub orders. U of L will cover all transaction fees.

Think about how annoying it is to pay thousands of dollars on a meal plan. Then consider how little of that you can even spend. Finally, think about how little of that money the dining staff will actually see. 

Next time you go out to eat on campus, show your appreciation for the dining staff. If you can, stop and talk to them or give them a compliment. You might make someone’s day.

File Graphic // The Louisville Cardinal 

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Features editor reviews visiting campus food trucks Monday, Mar 1 2021 

BAB and COVID-19 and Dining and Features and Food and Food Trucks and on-campus dining and u of l and University of Louisville Tate Luckey 1:45 pm

By Tate Luckey — 

In an effort to provide more on-campus food variety, last week the University of Louisville’s Dining services brought three food trucks to campus.

A variety of food choices were provided for students who purchased a ticket worth 10 flex points. From what U of L Dining has suggested, this event was also done in part to support local businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Celtic Pig – 

Born through a passion for smoked meat and pride for Celtic ancestry, the Celtic Pig serves up everything from fish and chips and pulled pork to scotch eggs and haggis. Easily spotted by its Blarney Green and kilted truck, owner Sam Bracken desired to sell authentic, home-cooked meals to his customers.

One of the favorites among those who went was the pulled pork grilled cheese. Topped with Irish cheddar and served on Texas toast, freshman Cassidy Witt actually went back to buy another for her roommate.

“I don’t why I’m acting like I’m not going to eat half too. It’s really good,” she said.

Get it on a Bun at Booty’s –

First starting as a hot dog stand in 1996, Get it on a Bun at Booty’s is native to New Albany. Providing a variety of diner-style foods (jerk chicken, or “Booty Burgers,” anyone?), they were only present during the 10:30 a.m – 2:30 p.m. time slots. That doesn’t mean they didn’t have great food, though.

The Pulled pork sandwich they had was a fantastic choice for those looking to tear into a good piece of meat. It was juicy, well seasoned, and had just the right amount of “pull” to make it worth a ticket.

Nathan’s Taqueria –

Beatriz Mata and Carlos Gomez decided to bring their food trucks to give Louisville a taste of Mexico. Their options were 3 street tacos, nachos and a burrito. Each had an option of pork or chicken. Out of all the trucks present, this one was the busiest in the mornings.

The most popular food item from what I saw was the nachos. “The pork to me was what made it. It was pretty good. They put lots of tomatoes,” freshman Alex Reynolds described.

Photos by Tate Luckey and Anthony Riley // The Louisville Cardinal

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Keep on (food) truckin’ Wednesday, Apr 22 2020 

Commentary and Food Trucks Robin Garr 11:15 am

We’ve been talking a lot about finding ways to support our local restaurants during this time of pandemic and staying at home. We’ve ordered delivery, put on our masks and dashed in to grab takeout, and we’ve waited patiently in our cars for quick curbside delivery. Let’s not forget another important option: Support your local … Continue reading Keep on (food) truckin’ →

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New restaurants should be added to campus Wednesday, Mar 4 2020 

campus dining and Cook out and Food and Food Trucks and HS and Mark's Feed Store and Opinion and sustainability and Sweetgreen and Vegan and Vegetarian Ben Goldberger 1:29 pm

By Ben Goldberger —

Students have a large amount of dining options on campus with different types of cuisine. There are chain restaurants like Subway and Chick-Fil-A, a cafeteria-style dining option in the Ville Grille and fresher options in the Marketplace.

But throughout these options, many of the restaurants sell the same types of food. There are three different sandwich restaurants, two American-style fast food places and a burger station both in the Marketplace and the Ville Grille. 

Because of this, U of L should bring in new restaurants to give students broader options when choosing where to get a bite to eat. The following restaurants are some dining options that would be great to have on campus.

Cook Out

This is an obvious suggestion for a restaurant on a college campus. Cook Out has pretty much every type of food under the moon, with a menu consisting of burgers, hot dogs, quesadillas, chicken nuggets, milkshakes, cheesecake and so much more.

On top of this, all Cook Out locations are open past 2 a.m., giving students an option for dinner if they are out late studying. This combination of an extensive menu and late hours is the perfect recipe for a restaurant on a college campus.

Sweetgreen

The biggest thing that is missing in the U of L dining scene is healthy options.

Sweetgreen is a chain restaurant that serves healthy foods such as salads and grain bowls. Having a healthier option on campus would make eating on campus much easier for vegan and vegetarian students at the university.

It would also allow for students to eat more sustainably since Sweetgreen does not offer any meat products. This would play into U of L’s value of sustainability, so it would also benefit the university as a whole. Sweetgreen is a win-win situation for both the students and the administration and should be brought to campus as soon as possible.

Mark’s Feed Store

Once a favorite dining spot on campus, Mark’s Feed Store was replaced by Sandwich Shack last year. Mark’s Feed Store was notorious for its great meal swipe options, giving the largest amount of food across all campus meal swipes.

Bringing back this Louisville born-and-raised dining option would be widely appreciated across the student body. Along with the positive reaction that will come with adding this dining option to campus, Mark’s Feed Store will diversify the campus dining options by adding barbeque to the menu.

Assorted Food Trucks

There are few things that are pretty much universally liked, and one of these things is food trucks.

No matter where you are, everyone gets excited when they see a food truck. Having a food truck of the week from local restaurants will allow students to have a quick bite in between classes. The food trucks on campus will also increase the diversity of food options that students can choose from. 

Food trucks would be a quirky addition to the campus dining scene that would promote the city as well as excite the students. 

There are many different ways the university could improve the options for eating on campus, but these four are a great place to start.

Graphic by Shayla Kerr // The Louisville Cardinal

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After A Year-Long Fight, Metro Council Approves Food Truck Regulations Thursday, Oct 24 2019 

Community and Food Trucks and Louisville Metro Council Amina Elahi 8:02 pm

Food trucksThe Metro Council ended a year-long fight Thursday evening when it voted to pass an ordinance that strengthened some proposed regulations on food trucks and other mobile vendors, while loosening others.

Food truck owners protested earlier versions of the ordinance, one of which got sent back to the public works committee in August for further refinement.

Council members voted 22 to 0 to approve the measure.

The accepted legislation did away with measures including a restriction on noise produced by generators and restrictions on how much of a block could be reserved for commercial vending downtown. It expanded the requirement for reporting all criminal convictions in the preceding five years to include all employees who engage in vending and peddling.

“I really think this represents something where nobody got everything they wanted, but it is a good balance between the interested parties,” said Markus Winkler (D-17).

Last year, Metro Council repealed an ordinance that restricted where food trucks could operate based on their proximity to brick and mortar restaurants following a lawsuit from two local food truck owners. Earlier this year, Metro Government and the owners entered a consent decree that ended the lawsuit. It said Metro could not treat food truck vendors differently than other commercial vehicles.