There’s a restaurant hiding on Prince Avenue, just inside the University of Georgia’s Health Sciences Campus.
The Niche is a university dining hall, but once inside, it feels more like a restaurant than a buffet-style campus cafeteria.
For instance, at what other
dining hall can you find beet and goat cheese salad or a roasted vegetable strudel with a red pepper coulis?
It’s open to all, but students who pay for membership to a meal plan can eat there for free.
The dining hall is about five years old and has had to expand since its opening because of its popularity.
Lines start forming around 11 a.m. for the lunchtime rush. The queue leads to a computer where visitors place their orders for grill line items and pizzas.
Gregg Hudson, manager of The Niche, said about 450 students make their way through the dining hall each day.
The Niche was originally created as a spot for students living in Brown Hall, the dorm on the Health Sciences Campus, to grab a bite to eat in between classes for breakfast and lunch.
However, Hudson said about 95 percent of the students who eat there are coming from main campus.
Bryan Varin, interim executive director of food services, said he had no idea the dining hall would be this popular; in fact he wasn’t sure if anyone would visit.
“We really created a destination location within the meal plan,” Varin said.
The outside of the dining hall is nondescript. It’s the only thing inside Scott Hall, a brick building with a similar look to all the others on the campus.
Inside the room opens up with floor-to-ceiling windows letting in bright light.
When The Niche was first built, it held 100 eaters. Its seating area was expanded about two years ago to add 50 more chairs.
It’s still the smallest UGA dining hall, by far.
Bolton, newly renovated, seats 1,000 along with Oglethorpe Dining Commons, which was recently expanded to hold about 600.
Hudson said the first few years the dining hall was open his staff plated every dish for visitors.
“In order to accommodate expansion and feed more, I had to switch it and make it so they could get food right when they walk in,” Hudson said
The Niche is meant to be more of a specialty stop for students.
“We really consider ourselves more of a dining restaurant than a dining hall since the majority of the food is custom made to order,” Hudson said.
As the word about the dining hall spreads, visitors are coming in droves.
“We still have to manage the crowds, but they get in quicker, and they find a seat faster,” Varin said.
The students take a UGA bus to get there, which drops students off at the doors of the dining hall. Some students are even making a special trip by car over to the dining hall.
Jordan Pye, a sophomore at UGA studying business management and Arabic, said his classes are on main campus, but he makes it over to The Niche most days.
“You don’t see the same personal connection with the people at the other dining halls,” Pye said.
Hudson learns about 500 new names each semester and greets students, asking them if they have everything they need.
Most of the visitors still get made-to-order foods, such as the grass-fed beef burgers or a selection of sandwiches.
Or they’re getting pizza, which are made to order and fired in a hearth.
“It has been so successful here that we have spawned off The Niche Pizza Company in the Tate Center,” Hudson said. “The students really like the pizza.”
The Niche Pizza Company opened its storefront inside the Tate Center in March 2015, selling custom pizzas fired in a hearth. That eatery is open to all.
Follow reporter Hilary Butschek on Twitter @hilarylbutschek or at https://www.facebook.com/hbutschek.
