Restaurants at Woodland open to Forest residents

A ladder still leans against the side of The Round, one of the many new eateries inside the Restaurants at Woodland in Forest Quad.

The dining hall, part of a larger renovation project in Forest Quad, was scheduled to open in late August, but now won’t open to the entire campus until a later, undetermined date, said Chris Frank, marketing manager of dining services for Residential Programs and Services.

“We didn’t get to do it when we were hoping,” Frank said.

A soft opening last Wednesday for Forest residents only gave some students a taste of the new establishment, but the event was exclusive to Forest residents only. 

Frank said the process was delayed because the building did not meet overall standards set by IU for such facilities.

The building codes set by IU are actually stricter than those of Monroe County, Frank said. This discrepancy slows progress because more tasks had to be completed before the employees of the restaurants were allowed to begin working.

These codes are monitored by the IU Environmental Health and Safety Department, which is tasked with ensuring campus facilities are up to code.

Once these standards were met, the employees of the Restaurants at Woodland were allowed inside to start working with their new equipment and learning the specifics of the technology available for them in a process that was set to take about one to two months. This process is running behind by two and a half months, Frank said.

“We thought we’d have control of the building by mid to late June,” Frank said.

Despite this delay, the soft opening, a surprise to both students and staff, has been successful, Frank said.

Janet Morgan, an employee at the Restaurants at Woodland, said workers only knew about the opening date a week in advance, and it was tentative up until the night before.

“We don’t want to put students in danger with food,” Morgan said, in reference to why so many precautions were taken.

Nothing relating to health or food safety was an issue during the process, Frank said.

The food preparations at the Restaurants at Woodland are actually of a caliber far higher than most food services on the IU campus, Frank said.

“Part of the excitement has to do with that it’s new,” Frank said. “Part of it, too, is that the variety of Woodland is broader and different from other things on
campus.”

Along with a well-trained culinary staff, chefs inside of the Restaurants at Woodland worked with the Culinary Institute of America to learn how to prepare local and international cuisines for nine different restaurants.

Frank said this gives Woodland a different quality of food with a lot more culinary attention.

He said the dining hall’s main attraction is its made-to-order steak and fish grill called A Cut Above. This kind of restaurant is not found anywhere else on campus.

The Restaurants at Woodland are replacing both the Hoosier Café and Landes Dining Room at Read Center.

Freshman Elliot Mark hadn’t even realized the restaurant was open when he walked in.

“The fact that you can use meal points is such a plus,” Mark said.

He wasn’t the only one surprised by the news of the soft opening. Freshman Simon Willard was shocked to find the Restaurants at Woodland had opened, thinking that things were continually being delayed.

“It’s gorgeous,” freshman Robert Brown said. “I love it.”

While there is still currently no set date for a grand opening, Frank advises people to keep an eye on the RPS Facebook page for information about such activities in the future.

It is possible that the restaurants will be open to the public before a grand opening ceremony occurs to familiarize the staff with the new facility and prepare them for the influx of students.

“We want to have a special event later on in the fall,” Frank said.

Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino