The eatery, which is a renovation of the former Cyber Café, includes five restaurants and seating for about 150 people. Unlike the Cyber Café, Bookmark[et] Eatery is run through RPS, which allows students to use I-BUCKS meal plans at a 25-percent discount.
While this is less than the 60-percent discount offered at most RPS dining locations on campus, Kent Rerko, RPS Dining’s marketing manager, said he believed this pricing system would be better than what had previously been offered in the Cyber Café.
“This is one of many ways we’re changing this dining location in a good way,” Rerko said. “But unlike the other RPS dining locations on campus, the Bookmark[et] is being run as a separate financial entity with different management and a different brand.”
The dining location is being branded as a destination for both local and international food, said Sonya Harding, the manager of Bookmark[et] Eatery.
Bloomington restaurants Scholars Inn Bakehouse and the Chocolate Moose, as well as Gelato Da Vinci from Carmel, Indiana, have locations in the eatery.
“It certainly took some more negotiating, and they’ve all brought in people to help with training,” Harding said. “We like being able to have food from places people are already familiar with.”
Another of the five restaurants, the Traveler, offers soups and entrees from a different country every day. Dishes from India, Mexico, Korea and Thailand are already being planned, head chef Darren Todd Worth said.
“We’re hoping that with a greater variety of food options, we can draw in not just students, but also faculty, staff and visitors,” Harding said. “And we’re trying to match the prices here with what you would pay at any other location of these restaurants.”
Bookmark[et] Eatery will attempt to create their food from scratch as often as possible, Worth said. Breads and salad dressings are homemade, and any foods made off-site, like sushi, are made and delivered fresh each morning.
Vegan and dairy-free options are also available in all five restaurant locations.
“I’m excited about this new place that allows us to be so creative in what we make,” Worth said. “We do everything we can ourselves, and I believe that we’re really doing things the right way here with our cooking.”
With the addition of Bookmark[et] Eatery in the basement of Wells Library, the food available in the RPS Campus Café on the main floor will be changing as well.
One of the restaurants in Bookmark[et] Eatery, Panino Mio, features custom paninis, which were formerly available in the Campus Café. The Campus Café will now offer personal pizzas instead.
“The RPS Campus Café has had very high traffic during this gap between the Cyber Café and the Bookmark[et] Eatery, and they did a great job dealing with a lot of business in such a small space,” Rerko said. “With the demand we foresee at the new dining location, this will lighten their load while still offering more variety for those who want it.”
Management of the new dining location anticipates a lot of customers at its opening and hopes the level of interest in Bookmark[et] Eatery will remain high, Rerko said.
“Part of what makes this place great is its location, because people pass through here all the time,” Rerko said. “It’s so much more vibrant down here than it used to be, so we hope that now people come through and stay for a little while.”
