The 680-seat dining room is bright with natural lightcoming in through two-story windows facing west and south.

The new $32 million center includes a residential dining venue, Anderson Commons, and retail dining options, including The Maize, a short-order café; Korn Krib, a convenience store; and Coffee Stop, a coffee bar.

“It's unusual to have every dining operation new on campus,” says Lee.

Flexibility is built into the operation through selection of equipment that can be shared between two or more stations and accommodate many types of cuisines. Flexibility is also enhanced with refrigerated units at each station to hold ingredients, food wells that can switch from hot to cold as needed and the option to close stations during slower traffic periods. Also, equipment moves easily in production areas. Another mark of flexibility is seen in the continual rotation of menu items in order to maintain a small inventory and avoid overproduction.

Coffee drinks and baked goods bring in about $3,300/week to the Coffee Stop retail operation.

Labor savings was not a primary goal per se. In fact, nearly 40 percent more labor was hired when the foodservice operations first opened. “We were grossly understaffed when we opened because so many more customers came to the foodservice facility,” Lee says. “So, we grew the revenue side of the operation and by year's end, we were still running with labor costs 40 percent higher than before.

“A great deal of our success is attributed to the fact dining services was involved from the beginning and could give input,” Lee says. “Members of our team were involved in everything, from the selection of the architect to equipment layout. We worked with every work team, including culinary, bakery, service and dishroom, when planning the layout, design and specifying the equipment. We went through details such as whether doors should open from the left or right and all the things that drive you bonkers later. Our staff felt empowered and this has resulted in a very positive mind-set about serving customers.”

The construction crew poured the Terrazzo floors before equipment was installed in The Maize.

Another factor influencing enthusiasm for the foodservice facility is the natural light streaming through two stories of glass windows facing west and south. Even the kitchen has windows. “Our old facility was in a basement with eight-foot-high ceilings and no natural light,” Lee says.

In addition to a natural light source, the Anderson Commons Dining Room also contains a large fireplace. “The winters are long and cold here, so this gives light and warmth,” Lee says.

“The inspiration for the interior design's main components of clean, simple millwork came from research we did. Jane Grant Shambaugh, Janet Paul Rice, the Porters and I researched foodservice equipment at the Hotel Olympia show in London. Our heritage here is Norwegian and we saw beautiful millwork that was simple, clean and rounded. The design lines we used echo that of our Norwegian heritage. The millwork wasn't easy to build. The millworkers had to bend all the laminate to get a curved look.”

A wide selection of choices in the commons also generates excitement. In the old facility, the menu featured eight entrée choices. In contrast, Anderson, a lively marketplace-style all-you-care-to-eat servery, offers more than 50 entrée combinations. It features 11 food and beverage venues. Students selected not only the stations' names — winners won dining dollars — but also the main component offerings.

Small steam kettles allow staff to produce specialty sauces for the serving stations.

Fillings is a made-fresh-to-order deli with everything you can fit between two slices of bread. A display case features European-style baguette sandwiches. A panini grill heats sandwiches.

Comfort features roasted meats, potatoes and gravy, rice and vegetables, and hearty vegetarian and vegan offerings. Staff prepare menu selections on equipment such as a range and combi ovens and achieve a restaurant feel by serving food in decorative pans that they place in templates in the steam wells.

The servery's centerpiece station is Slice, where a stone hearth pizza oven bakes daily three varieties of made-from-scratch pizza, calzones and cheesy bread. While customers decide what to order, they can watch culinary teams create menu items.

Al Dente offers mix-and-match pastas and sauces, as well as baked entrée items such as lasagna and manicotti. A pasta cooker provides staff the flexibility they need to cook a wide variety of menu items that are rotated frequently.

At Bliss, pastries, pies, cakes, muffins, quick breads and coffee cakes sit in display cases to tempt customers' palettes. Soft-serve and hard ice cream with toppings complete the dessert mix.

Sizzle includes charbroiled burgers, veggie burgers and fries, along with melt sandwiches, hot dogs, brats and appetizers including onion rings, poppers and specialty fries. The station contains a six-foot-long charbroiler, fryers and flat-top grills. “Inventory management of rotating items was a challenge because we wanted items to change out quickly but we didn't know how fast the inventory would turn,” Lee says. “So, we developed an inventory management system that allows menu flexibility for this area. We only purchase enough of these items to last two or three meals. When we run out of an appetizer-type item such as corn dogs, we move on to the next item planned. This ordering system ensures that offerings at this station are always changing.”

Customers can build their own salads along the sides of the kidney-bean-shaped Fresh, which also offers warm breads and dinner rolls. At one end, customers can select from four homemade soups daily at Simmer. At the opposite end, staff make gourmet salads in small batches continuously. Salad selections change every three meals.

Energy offers breakfasts all day with a variety of cereal, toasting breads, yogurt bar and create-your-own waffle station.

Finally, Quench provides a beverage lineup of juice, fountain soft drinks, power drinks, organic fair-trade coffee, hot chocolate, cappuccino, dairy and soy milk on tap.

Anderson Commons includes 11 food stations positioned to manage traffic and avoid long queues during peak periods. Photos courtesy of Concordia College Dining

Behind the scenes, an array of equipment in the kitchen provides the mise en place and many finished products for the servery. “We wanted to encourage staff and customer interaction so the more extroverted staff members work in the front of the house,” Lee says.

In the back of the house, staff use four combi ovens, a blast chiller, ranges, prep tables, two small steam-jacketed kettles and a tilting steam braising skillet.

The dishroom sits strategically between the servery and the dining room. “This provides separation between the serving and dining areas. The wall space around the dishroom gives us a perfect space for all the beverage machines,” Lee says. The dishroom is double-insulated and has its own ventilation system, while the old dishroom is still in use for dishes used in production.

The décor is a crucial component in the ongoing marketing strategy. “We have realized how great an impact décor can have on the guests' experience,” Lee says. “We try to keep all of our dining operations looking new and fresh. This requires frequently changing the décor. We try to change it for each season.” For example, in The Maize, platters in the display cases in hot months are summery colors, such as light green and blue. A few weeks later, greens and earth tones convey a touch of fall.

A back-of-house production line supports the Sizzle station servery. All of the production also supports catering operations.

Coffee Stop features branded fresh-brewed coffee. Two small bakery cases display bakery items and fruit parfaits.

Now that the dining operations are up and running at Concordia College, Debra Lee, Janet Paul Rice and other members of the staff are finally beginning to feel a sense of normalcy in their daily routines. Ironically, normalcy includes incorporating constant changes into Anderson Commons and the retail operations.