This past Monday, Sodexho unveiled the newly-renovated Union Rathskellar. The construction began with the holiday break and was completed Monday. When it opened at 11 that morning, many members of RPI’s Sodexho management and student leaders who had played a role in the project were present. By 11:15, it was filled with students looking over the changes in the room and ordering food.
The renovations put all the cash registers behind the counters, one at each of the respective food stations. The first station is called Subconnection, a Sodexho-branded Subway alternative. Their menu includes many sandwich varieties formerly present in the Rathskellar, but with many new offerings including meatball. The Cyberwraps station was left at the request of student leaders consulted on the project, but with a slightly altered menu that has displeased some of its fans. The fast-food station is now entitled 155 and has taken on more of a counter-service format, and features several more choices and combos. Lastly, the Fire and Spice station was left substantially as it was, but features all the pizza and calzone choices displayed behind a glass barrier, very much in the style of a Sbarro’s, according to many of those in attendance.
Perhaps the greatest change to the Rathskellar is in the room itself. As a result of a $500,000 “ambience package,” Sodexho has completely transformed the space. It features eight standard four-person tables, five four-person booths, four eight-person round-tabled booths, two high-top counters, nine stool-tables for two, an open seating area with easy chairs, and two mounted televisions. The generous addition of numerous outlets and network ports all around the room complete its transformation into something of a study space as well as an eatery. Additionally, glass posts and glass plates to surround the entire area will arrive sometime in the near future, Sodexho Resident District Manager John Fusco indicated, and will complete the renovation.
The Rathskellar renovations came out of a plan made several years ago to make significant changes to both the McNeil room and the Rathskellar. Those plans, however, were met with significant student resistance and were re-thought. It was at that point that student leaders were brought in on the project to make specific suggestions. One of their first was that the Rathskellar maintain its current dimensions and not expand into the games room, eliminating the bowling lanes. A great deal of other feedback followed, and once it was decided to just renovate the Rathskellar, the plan gained a good deal of support. Peter Baldwin ’06, president of the Union, spearheaded the present incarnation of the ambience package, and following his presentation of the plans to the Student Senate and the Union Executive Board last semester, he asked Sodexho to begin the renovations over break.
Initial student reactions to the changes at the Rathskellar were overwhelmingly positive. Students commented on a variety of topics from the new décor, to compliments on the new food variety, to suspicions that prices had gone up. Over the course of the day, several Rathskellar employees could be heard remarking on the brisk business being done. In addition, employee morale seemed high, despite some initial unfamiliarity with some of the food preparation and some small glitches with the notoriously unreliable credit card authorization system. Overall, the renovation not only affected the appearance and the food choices available in the Rathskellar, but also turned it into a study space as equally as usable as the McNeil Room and the third floor of the Union.
