OPINION: The ghost kitchens in Wells Dining have undergone a radical transformation. What was previously a kitchen split between a few franchises, including Mr. Beast Burger, has been united into a single kitchen dedicated to Buffalo Wild Wings Go. This has brought the iconic “BDubs” menu to the University of Maine campus, allowing students to grab a beer and some wings while playing pool. This is a smart move to bring a recognizable brand to the student experience. However, there are structural issues present with Wells and Sodexo that have made a less than desirable launch that should’ve been pushed back to the start of next year.
My first experience with the newly opened Buffalo Wild Wings Go was through the Everyday App’s KiwiBot delivery system. I got the food delivered to my dorm in a relatively timely manner. However, I had issues with the quality of the food. The chicken was dry. The wings in the sampler came unsauced and they were dry to the point that they were hard to eat. There is no way to get the chicken tossed in the sampler when you order it.
I also had to pay a service fee to get it delivered which I wasn’t able to use dining dollars on. This wouldn’t be a problem if I simply had to pay the three dollar fee out of pocket. However, it wouldn’t let me place the order at all. I anticipate this is because of the split in payment methods. I was forced to cover the whole thing out of pocket on my card because of this.
My second experience was worse. I went in person to Wells on the opening week. I ordered my food through the app, which is required. I waited about an hour for my order. Everyone I was with was waiting a while for their order as well, so I didn’t think much of it. After this hour, I asked an employee for a time estimate on my order. I was then informed that their printer had stopped working exactly as I placed my order and it was not relayed to the kitchen. However, this fortunately did mean that my food came out piping hot when it was done. This improved the food quality, but the dining experience was significantly worsened.
The biggest issue the establishment faces seems to be not just technology but also staffing and facilities. The kitchen at Wells is small, it can only support a few workers at a time. Dining is also seemingly not able to hire more people during the year to support the new kitchen. They were not adequately prepared for the new influx of business that was not at Wells Dining previously. They should not have tried to launch in the middle of the year without properly preparing the workers and facilities for it. The kitchen needs to be expanded, and more workers need to be hired for the restaurant to run smoothly.
