Students can expect to see 10 food trucks spread throughout campus. Eight of the 10 trucks will rotate throughout locations spread around campus while two will have permanent locations.
Students will be able to find food trucks in all of the same locations as previous semesters as well as two new food truck spots on the Mell Concourse this fall, said Director of Tiger Dining Glenn Loughridge.
Of those 10 trucks, there are seven that have been featured as campus food trucks in the past and three new trucks.
Here are the three new trucks.
Crepe Myrtle
Crepe Myrtle Cafe closed its doors March 11 and will now have a home for its new food truck.
“With Crepe Myrtle Cafe moving, there was this great opportunity to fill the void,” said Glenn Loughridge, director of Tiger Dining. “We knew this was a favorite of students. That’s always a great starting place. If we know students already like something, that’s an easy decision.”
The Crepe Myrtle truck is one of the eight rotating trucks. The truck plans to serve a menu that will include breakfast crepes on weekdays from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. in various spots around campus.
King Braswell, owner of Crepe Myrtle, approached Loughridge with the idea of a Crepe Myrtle Cafe food truck, and it seemed like a perfect fit to Loughridge's plan to add more food variety on campus, he said.
Braswell plans to bring as much of the same menu from the restaurant to the truck. He wants to feature as many of his crowd favorite crepes as he can.
There will also be one rotating spot on the menu that will feature a popular crepe from the original menu that didn’t make the cut to be a full-time menu item for the truck.
Braswell said he wants to truck to be able to accommodate students’ busy schedules so the truck has to be able to get orders out fast, which is the reason for the smaller menu.
The menu isn’t the only thing students may recognize, many of the staff that will work on the truck worked in the restaurant on Donahue Drive.
“I know we will be able to have the same atmosphere because it’s going to be created with the same love that I created the other with,” Braswell said. “I know that what we do is we provide an experience for people that lasts a long time.”
Steak ‘n Shake
While Steak ‘n Shake’s permanent location on the second floor of the Student Center is under construction, the restaurant will have a food truck located on the corner of Thach and Haley Concourse next to Tichenor Hall.
The truck is larger than the average food truck so that spot will be able to provide the truck with adequate power each day, Loughridge said.
The truck is temporary and will go away once the Student Center location opens.
“We knew the construction was going to be a little more extensive than we hoped given the time frame,” said Glenn Loughridge, director of Tiger Dining. “Just to be able to get done all the things that had to get done, we felt that was one of the things that was going to stretch out further.”
The truck will feature a limited menu that will include shakes.
“Service is important,” Loughridge said. “Our desire is to always do the most we can do for students. But if you do too much and make it too complex, then you start interrupting the time. It starts causing much difficulty getting people through lines. We want to be fast and efficient.”
The Steak ‘n Shake truck will not leave campus until the permanent location is up and running. Loughridge said he plans to open the Student Center location at the beginning of the spring 2019 semester, Loughridge said.
Starbucks
Tiger Dining is adding a Starbucks truck to its growing list of food trucks. The truck is one of four in existence and will be located on the Roosevelt Concourse, Loughridge said.
“We don’t have a coffee program in that area,” Loughridge said. “That’s kind of an underserved area in general. We’d like to designate a spot for it.”
The Starbucks truck will now be a permanent feature among the food trucks. Tiger Dining has purchased the truck, Loughridge said.
“We felt like this is something students use every day,” Loughridge said. “It’s very expensive to build a building. The Starbucks truck was probably less than 10 percent of what it would have cost to build a location that could do the same type of volume.”
Loughridge said one of the perks behind the Starbucks truck is it can be moved so as Tiger Dining continues to evolve, the truck can be moved as needed.
The truck will feature much of the same menu that can be found at regular locations, including a selection of pastries, coffees and signature Starbucks drinks.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
