See how UCSD revamped an eatery to accommodate dietary restrictions
By Benita Gingerella on Jan. 30, 2017When the University of California at San Diego decided to renovate its OceanView eatery, the dining team realized the overhaul was an opportunity to provide something students had been requesting for some time: options for diners with religious dietary restrictions. As such, the team worked with Muslim and Jewish students to ensure diners could access kosher-certified and halal-friendly meals at OceanView with ease. At just over 13,000 square feet, the concept offers students global cuisine, wood-fired pizzas and baked goods with a view of the kitchens servicing its three stations. Here is a look at the new space, which opened in January.
Photos courtesy of Matthew Hansen, Housing*Dining*Hospitality, UC San Diego
Dietary restrictions top of mind
Foodservice staff spent a year and a half working with a rabbi and the local Jewish community to source kosher proteins and research kosher customs. While one of the eatery’s stations, Spice, is glatt kosher—a strict level of kosher certification—it’s not centered on traditional Jewish cuisine. Spice serves such scratch-made items as rotisserie harissa chicken and beef meatballs with berbere, an Ethiopian spice blend.
“[The menu is] really driven by flavor,” says Development Manager Jason Andrews. “That’s the whole concept behind Spice, is to do it with a wide range of spices from different regions and really take it to another level.”
The same is true for OceanView’s 3rd Kitchen station, which uses halal-friendly proteins in dishes like pizza and salads. “It’s a piece of Americana,” says Leo Acosta, assistant director of operations for dining, market and culinary services. “It’s amazing food that happens to be kosher and just happens to be halal.”
Looking beyond campus
OceanView is the first kosher-certified and halal-friendly eatery on campus. Due to the costs associated with sourcing kosher ingredients, it is also one of the few places to get a kosher meal in the surrounding community, according to Acosta and Andrews. The university is able to balance the costs of Spice being wholly kosher through the other two stations in OceanView. Since opening, Andrews says that they “have seen an unusually large amount of visitors from the [local] Jewish community.” In the future, staff members hope to provide delivery and catering services to nearby gathering places such as the local temple.
Ensuring strict standards
In keeping with kosher customs, OceanView had to make sure that Spice has separate storage rooms for various ingredients and that everything from the fridges to the cabinets are under lock and key. “We have to ensure that essentially this platform is completely self-contained, and our keys are held by our quality assurance staff,” says Andrews.
One issue the team is currently tackling is how it’s going to handle emergency maintenance in the storage areas, as they require strict supervision. “One of the ongoing struggles we’re going to witness is doing maintenance,” he says “It needs to be supervised at all times by one of our quality assurance staff members.”
Scratch-made pizza on demand
With the help of a wood stone pizza oven and a dough roller nicknamed R2D2, staff at OceanView make Neapolitan-style pizzas from scratch. Guests are able to choose the type of dough and toppings used. Another deck oven is located in the Counter Culture station, which serves gelato, pastries, coffee and grab-and-go sandwiches 24 hours a day. OceanView hopes to one day use the oven for pizzas delivered on campus and to the surrounding community.
All-day service
Officials decided to make OceanView a 24-hour location to provide a safe environment for students to hang out and study. Addressing potential safety concerns, the school has offered campus police officers free coffee refills in an effort to draw an active security presence to the area. Additionally, the dining team hopes that the late hours will allow them to get ahead on the next day’s prepping cycle, especially as the team eyes its first foray into delivery (the school does currently offer catering and online ordering for pickup).
Designed for show
Aside from the kosher storage rooms, OceanView was designed with an open layout, and equipment such as the rotisserie and pizza oven can be viewed by guests as soon as they step in the door.
“The design in all of our stations was to really showcase the food and our staff,” says Acosta. “From any vantage point in the restaurant, you can see what’s going on and see the action as it happens.”