While Adele’s is closed for dinner this semester, the space will take on a new purpose.
“There will be some events that are scheduled in there during the evenings, things like spoken word that would’ve been held elsewhere in the building,” Stamp Student Union Director Marsha Guenzler-Stevens said. “They are also taking reservations for that space in the evenings.”
The restaurant opted to close at 2 p.m. this semester as a result of the new Anytime Dining plan that eliminated dining points, the primary source of revenue for the restaurant in the evening hours.
“It’s one of the most beautiful spaces in the building, and it also is a terrifically different kind of eating venue for students who eat in our food corridor and their dining hall,” Guenzler-Stevens said. “Long-term, we really want to look at food and how food complements programs and operating hours.”
Stamp will likely bring in consultants to evaluate the student union’s offerings, including Adele’s, in early 2017, Guenzler-Stevens said.
“Adele’s and seated-served kind[s] of food[s] will be one of those conversations we have with consultants in the coming months about food in general and how to use that very unique space,” Guenzler-Stevens said.
The Residence Hall Association’s Dining Services Advisory Board Chairman Ishan Shah said his committee is recommending a number of alternatives for how to use the space, such as moving the Maryland Dairy into the restaurant to free up its storefront for another vendor.
“The justification was … when we’re removing a place for students to eat, give them back another place to eat that conforms to the Anytime Dining a little better,” Shah, a sophomore biology major, said.
The group has also considered opening the space for group reservations, and establishing the restaurant as a more casual environment, Shah said. Prior to making a recommendation, the RHA committee would likely seek the opinions of students with dining plans via a poll, Shah added.
Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple called the efforts to update the space a “collaborative venture,” and said he hopes that changes will take its legacy into account.
“It’s really become a campus institution,” Hipple said. “It’s been operating as Adele’s for more than 20 years, [and] it provides a service that is not found anywhere else on the campus, so I think we need to move forward really respecting all of that heritage.”
Organizations looking to reserve Adele’s for an evening event can visit the restaurant’s website, or do so over the phone, Guenzler-Stevens said.
