A recent addition to the concourse may signal a new era in food service as Tiger Dining continues to expand its reach across campus.
Bill Sallustro, retail operations director for Tiger Dining, has extended an invitation to Domino's to bring a food cart onto the concourse, in hopes it will provide students more food options.
"It's a service to the students," Sullustro said. "It was a brand new concept we saw that was available. They had a food truck available, so we approached them and asked if they wanted to come to campus so we could provide more locations for students to have lunch."
Sallustro said the idea was to allow students a quick place to grab a bite as they hurry to class, as the cart is in an area students usually traverse.
"We like to help them get to class on time by putting these carts around campus so they can get food quickly," Sallustro said.
Brandon Payne, assistant manager at Domino's, also said he hopes to provide a service to students as he manages the new Domino's cart, which will be open on the concourse from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each weekday.
"We just want to help out the students so they could have a fast meal for a cheap price," Payne said. "This was just an opportunity to feed more students over there."
Chris Daughtry, also an assistant manager at Domino's, said he hopes having a cart on campus will cause students to appreciate their product more.
"It's just to get our product out," Daughtry said. "Everyone's so used to Papa John's; it's like a Papa John's town. We're just trying to get out there and show our product is superior."
The trial run for the cart will be six weeks, and Payne will use the time to get a feel for how students react to Domino's being on campus.
"We're not really interested in profits at the moment," Payne said. "We're just going to try it and see how it goes. Of course making money is something you want to happen, but right now that's not the main focus."
Domino's presence on campus is not set in stone and will depend alot on how the trial period goes.
Sallustro said it's possible they may decide not to stay, especially since there is significant competition nearby.
"Domino's has to make sure we have enough value to support the cost of the cart there," Sallustro said.
Though Domino's was only brought to the concourse Monday, Sallustro said students may need to start watching for other additions.
"There's all sorts of plans for the future," Sallustro said. "The University has to work on to get more dining space on campus. They're in the midst of looking into opportunities right now."
According to Sallustro, the destruction of Sewell Hall might give rise to a new dining area, though no plans have been set in stone yet.
"The old Sewell building has been knocked down, so there might be talk about putting something there," Sallustro said. "We don't know 100 percent what the plan is yet because the University's still deciding on different things."
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