Dining Services administrators have taken the barbecue out of "Trios Sunset Barbecue," changing the eatery's menu while also creating a takeout option for uphill students. The conversion of the small dining hall into "Trios Down-the-Alley" is Tufts' answer to strong demand for an uphill take-out venue, as well as a lack of popularity of the old setup, Dining Services officials said.
The revamped Trios, which opened at the start of the Spring semester, will serve as an uphill alternative to other popular takeout locations such as the Commons, Brown and Brew, and Hodgdon. Students can no longer use meals to purchase food at Trios, and now must pay in points, dining dollars, and cash. There are still tables at which students can eat, though the takeout option is encouraged.
The menu of the remade Trios features fruit smoothies, wraps, salads, and a rotating hot meal, with several vegetarian and vegan options. While the new menu moves away from the old meat-heavy options, the concept behind the Sunset Barbeque has not been entirely abandoned. Wings and other popular items from the old Trios many be offered at Hodgdon next year.
Given Trios' small size - the dining area is located near the Ginn library in the Fletcher School complex - Dining Services removed the meal option to prevent overcrowding. There were also concerns that if its unpopularity persisted, Trios would become a financial burden. Single service dining options are traditionally more expensive to run than Dewick-MacPhie and Carmichael, which employ efficient, mass-food preparation techniques.
A desire to maintain variety between the various campus eateries was another factor in Dining Services' decision.
"We didn't want to repeat Hodgdon. We want what we offer in each dining hall to be a little different," Director of Dining Services Patti Lee Klos said. "We also didn't have the space - we needed something to fit the building."
Students will be given a chance to sample some of the offerings from the new Trios next Wednesday in Carmichael from 12-1:30 p.m..
In the week since it opened, Trios Down-the-Alley appears to be more popular than the now-defunct Sunset Barbecue. "We had close to 50 people the first night, which is a good number," Lee Klos said. "Trios couldn't handle 300-400 students a day."
In the past, an estimated 30-40 people ate dinner at Trios every night, and Klos attributed the relatively small crowds to the limited barbecue menu. "People didn't want barbeque every day," Klos said.
The creation of Trios-Down-the-Alley is part of a general process to extend campus dining hours. Takeout at Trios is currently available from 5-8 p.m., but Dining Services may extend the hours until 10 p.m. on an experimental basis. If successful, the hours may later be extended to midnight.
"Usually people come in looking for something to drink or snack... we know that students tend to get hungry later at night," Lee Klos said. "We are looking into creating a fourth meal period in the regular dining halls, but we haven't yet worked out the financial implications."
Plans to extend the hours of Hotung are also in the works, as long as students are willing to work the later shifts. "We open Brown and Brew until 1 a.m. on weekends, even though there is not a great demand... we still feel that students on campus should have a place like that to go to," Lee Klos said.
