1 year later, El Bistro going strong

Nestled in the basement of Read Residence Center since October 2007, El Bistro has exceeded expectations and appears to be going strong.

“We thought it would start slowly at first,” said Sandra Fowler, dining director of Residential Programs and Services. “But it has been popular from the start.”

El Bistro was constructed in the basement of Clark wing in place of McDonald’s, which left Read at the end of spring 2007. The Meal Plan Committee opted to replace the McDonald’s restaurant rather than renew its contract after the 2006-2007 school year.

Senior Ediri Metitiri said she remembers McDonald’s from her freshman and sophomore years. McDonald’s “was nice and it was bad,” she said. “It was nice that you could get fries or a frosty right away. But the health part of it was what people didn’t like.”

Fowler said El Bistro’s daily customer traffic is comparable to that of the Hoosier Café, a smaller self-service dining hall at the Read Center and McNutt Quad.

The first day of classes was “very busy,” Fowler said. El Bistro tallied 1,297 customers. This was less than the 1,536 in traffic at the Hoosier Café upstairs, but more than the 1,190 at the McNutt Hoosier Café.

With 950 to 1,080 in daily customer traffic in its final year, McDonald’s never came close to El Bistro’s traffic.

El Bistro’s menu options include traditional breakfast food, burritos and deli sandwiches. During the 2006-2007 school year, the Meal Plan Committee conducted surveys to determine what menu items to offer. Fowler said the deli sandwich line was added without any taste-testing, and added it has been “very popular.”

Sophomore Nathan Ferguson has lived in Forest Quad since his freshman year. Like Metitiri, he prefers El Bistro to McDonald’s, which he remembered during a visit before attending IU.

He said the food at El Bistro “seems more like something you’d eat at home if you were cooking for yourself.”

Freshman and Read resident Jake Esformes said he prefers El Bistro to places like the Wright Place Food Court. He said the large size and general layout of the dining area at Wright feels “kind of like high school.” In contrast, El Bistro has a dozen tables at most, with the added option of outdoor seating.

“It’s much more relaxed than a dining hall,” said freshman and Read resident Andrew Olanoff. “It feels more like a café or something. It doesn’t feel like you’re on campus.”

El Bistro will probably stick around for several years, but RPS might adjust the menu items in response to food trends and student feedback, Fowler said. Meanwhile, as the semester gears up, new staff and students might still need a couple weeks to get the hang of things.

“I think having the food items prepared to order in front of students is very popular,” Fowler said. “It’s just a matter of our staff getting up to speed.”