Matt Weir/Collegian File Photo
Fresno State’s University Dining Hall has been serving up $5 Fridays for more than four years now. Despite the apparent value they offer on Fridays, it’s still their slowest day of the week.
UDH senior manager Debbie Guill says people weren’t aware of it until this year.
“It got more popular when the centennial celebration happened in October and we really promoted it,” she said. “It’s been very successful and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about it.”
According to Guill, approximately 300 students and staff visit the dining hall during breakfast, 600 visit during lunch and 700 visit during dinner on weekdays. However, on Friday business slows down.
“Unlike the outside world where typically Friday and Saturday in the restaurant business is very busy ”” here it is the opposite,” she said. “Students are going home or they’re going out to eat because it’s Friday.”
Guill said that during the centennial celebration on Homecoming week last fall, she saw a huge spike in sales that Friday with approximately 200 faculty and staff alone coming to dine in the hall.
“We were shocked about how many people came,” she said. “What we did is we took the slowest day of the week and made it busier.”
Before homecoming week, a lot of people simply didn’t know about the Friday deal.
“I thought everybody knew,” she said, “and I learned that clearly everybody didn’t know.”
Guill said that other reasons students and staff don’t want to visit the dining hall is because of location and perception. The dining hall is on one end of campus, and to some students and staff it can be an inconvenience to make the trip down to the dining hall.
“I have the challenge of changing the perception of what goes along with dining hall food,” she said. “Every year I have 1,200 new students walking up that ramp going ‘This is going to be gross because it’s dining hall food.’”
But UDH doesn’t serve up mystery meat and flimsy mashed potatoes that many experience with a high school cafeteria. In fact, the dining hall menu changes daily, and they have an executive chef and sous chef, along with many cooks. Entrees and meals are cooked everyday from fresh ingredients. A lot of ingredients they use are grown right on the Fresno State campus.
In other words, processed food is not in UDH’s vocabulary.
“Any of the processed food that we are using would be the same you would use at your house,” Guill said. “Yes we can make thousand island from scratch, and you could, too. But are you going to take the time to do it? No.”
Guill says that they do sometimes use food that was prepared the day before, but only if it’s stored at the right temperature and never if it’s already been served to the students.
“You just need to hold it properly and reheat it properly” Guill said. “If the food has been on the line, it goes in the trash can.”
Food prepared the previous day will usually go in UDH’s “features station,” where the cook will be able to get creative with the leftovers and use their own recipes to make something that’s not on the menu. If there is still food left over after that, it goes in the trash as well.
“We don’t keep it for multiple days,” she said. “We’re not going to serve something more than once.”
Regular student prices for UDH are $6 for breakfast, $8.25 for lunch and $9.50 for dinner.
From soups and salads to onion rings and ice cream, healthy eaters or those wanting to splurge can all leave satisfied. And if one wants Belgian Waffles for dinner, they have that, too.
“That’s why $5 Fridays are so huge because you will leave here extremely full and happy,” Guill said.