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On Nov. 3, the Bear’s Den in the Memorial Union went back to the way it operated last year.
At the beginning of this school year, dining services administrators decided to remove the wait staff from the Bear’s Den and create a more limited menu. Director of operations at Black Bear dining, Kathy Kittridge, noticed an instant disapproval from students.
“The students were not pleased with that, so we added to the menu and brought back the wait staff-style service,” Kittridge said.
Each night in the restaurant there are two student-employee waiters or waitresses, one bartender and one cook — similar to last year. Kittridge has seen a high student demand for multiple staffers in the Den.
“We have the waitstaff that is back to serve the food. That was the No. 1 thing that people told us they wanted, was to have the people waiting on them,” Kittridge said.
With the servers back, along came an expanded menu to order from, with items such as chicken and mozzarella sticks.
“We had some items that were requested like chicken wings, whole pizzas made to order and mozzarella sticks,” Kittridge said. “Some of the other food items that were requested were things that people could share as a group or just more pub-food type items, so we kind of expanded back into some of the more popular items from last year.”
As of now, students who purchase food from the Marketplace are allowed to bring it into the Bear’s Den. Depending on business in the restaurant, this is subject to change, according to Assistant Manager of the Marketplace Al McAvoy.
“That might be changed if it gets busy in there. What they might do is try to keep the seating for just people who are ordering off the menu,” McAvoy said.
For now, Kittridge said allowing Marketplace food in the Bear’s Den is a favorable feature among students, and there are no plans to change the rule yet.
Josh Sjostrom, a fourth-year forestry student, said he noticed the reductions in dining services on campus at the beginning of the semester. He said he comes into the Bear’s Den everytime he eats in the Union so he can watch TV.
“[It] seemed like everything was always closed,” said Sjostrom, who added he found the Bear’s Den and other venues closed at inopportune times at the beginning of the year.
Sjostrom said the expanded staff and menu is an improvement to the Bear’s Den.
“When we started out this school year, we were allowing food from the Marketplace into the Bear’s Den, and we’re going to continue that to see how it goes throughout the semester because the students at some student meetings did indicate that they liked that feature,” Kittridge said.
In addition to the renewed wait staff and menu, Glenn Taylor, director of Culinary Services at the university, said the restaurant may undergo some appearance changes.
“We’re putting some mark-up drawings together to see if we want to change the look of the place. We’re at the point now of just trying to see who the right committee is that would review things like that. We do have a marketing consultant that is kind of looking at doing some mark-ups with new tables, booths, lighting, painting, to see what that look might look like. So we’re just kind of getting all that information together,” Taylor said.
Taylor added that if the changes were to take place, they would happen during Winter break.
“If we get the approval and the committee to look at tables and chairs, we could potentially have that in place beginning of second semester,” Taylor said. “We just want to make sure we’re making the right decisions and that the right people are involved.”
Kittridge and Taylor agreed their biggest focus is to promote the Bear’s Den. The two hope to have nightly specials such as “wing night Wednesdays” or a similar event to make the Bear’s Den more attractive to students.
“If you go to the Bear Brew or if you go to Margaritas, there are certain things that happen on certain nights. We need to get the Bear’s Den to have the same kind of thing going where it’s the place to be because it’s this [event] happening on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it’s this [event]. That’s what we’re working on right now,” Taylor said.
With all of these changes combined, McAvoy believes that — in the end — all of the work will pay off and create a more inviting atmosphere.
“I think it’s a work in progress. The difference now is I think there’s a determination there to make the Bear’s Den successful, to make it a place that students want to hang out in. They want to go there and they want to relax and enjoy each other’s company. From this point forward, I think there’s a real determination there to make that happen,” McAvoy said. “It’s just a matter of reinventing. It’s a matter of finding the right atmosphere with the right menu items, and I think it will all come together.”
