Tour the University of Michigan’s streamlined dining program

University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., is not the same dining program as it was three years ago. After a top-down reorganization, the program has integrated its residential, dining and catering departments. Now, rather than competing for business, the divisions share ideas and resources and step in for support. Check out how the collaborative structure has influenced UM’s offerings.

At Fireside Cafe, upscale snacks, grain and salad bars and more artisanal beverages converge to compete with the market-style experience of a Whole Foods. An extensive beverage case houses seasonal LTOs like Deadworld Zombie Soda and bundles sales to help move product. The cafe also rotates five local vendors into one of the serving spaces each week. 

Michigan’s dining team is not treating the gluten-free trend as a fad. Michigan has quartered swipe-accessible gluten-free rooms and spaces in three dining halls. The rooms are equipped with gluten-free cereals, breads and microwavable meals. Designated dishwashers, toasters and panini presses allow students to make hot items. Tom Smith, director of residential dining operations, says the team opts for more middle-grade equipment for the university’s gluten-free spaces, so that they can quickly toss and replace contaminated gear without taking much of a financial hit. Gluten-free condiments and sauces are also peppered throughout facilities, and retail units stock several gluten-free snack options. 

At the South Quad’s dining hall, the deli microrestaurant backs up to a retail location. When the dining hall closes, the smaller-footprint and lower-labor retail facility opens from 9 p.m. to 1 p.m. The units are connected by a service window and a door, so that dining and retail can cross-utilize expensive panini presses and other high-end equipment between the two cafes. A windowed partition between the retail location and the dining hall offers spillover seating during peak meal times.

Although the fresh fruit station is expensive and labor intensive, Smith says the fruit is a major draw to the halls. All day, at least three workers prep 40 cases of fresh fruit. Chopped in a centralized kitchen, fresh fruits, vegetables and other grab-and-go options are packaged with Michigan Dining branding and shipped off to retail.

In the past few years, many of Michigan’s dining facilities have been completely overhauled from more traditional serving lines into spaces with several microrestaurants. Those spaces now draw a disproportionate amount of the foot traffic from all over campus. To more evenly distribute sales to the locations that are between renovations, the dining team has made smaller-scale updates. For instance, at the decades-old Markley dining hall, the school designed “neighborhoods” within the dining room to create a more intimate and social space. The dining hall also appeals to time-crunched students with DIY pan pizzas, the most popular menu item.