Digital Menu Restaurants are “like the Food Network on campus”!2 min read

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Sodexo, which owns and operates FöD (an acronym which stands for Food on Demand) digital menu restaurants – an alternative dining concept for college and university campuses, provides students and staff with a fast and efficient restaurant-quality dining experience, which is both high-tech and customizable.

Being able to get their food made to order at the digital menu restaurants is a huge change from the mass-produced meals served at conventional campus dining halls. Sodexo’s Senior Director of Brand Management, Jeff Pente, says FöD “has dynamically changed the dining experience for the guest.” In the past, Pente explains, students put down their books and got in line; now, digital menu restaurants let them order their food on the touch screen, then put down their books, get their beverage, soup, and a salad, and socialize while they wait for notification that their order is ready to be picked up. The average time from touch screen entry to pick-up is between six and seven minutes; half of that time is spent cooking the food. Pente says, “Nobody is doing anything like this in the [college campus] marketplace”; he adds, “It’s like the Food Network on campus compared to what was there before.”

FöD’s digital menu restaurants offer additional benefits to its host campuses as well. According to Tom Post, Sodexo’s Division President, the cost of operating the digital menu restaurants is less than or equal to that of operating a typical campus dining operation for several reasons: FöD’s digital menu restaurants have a 2,500-square-foot footprint, compared to the 10,000-square-foot footprint of the conventional campus dining hall; the digital menu restaurants require only 15 employees to run the restaurant – far less staff than required to operate a dining hall; and, because students get only what they order, FöD reduces food waste by between 5 and 15 percent. Students and staff dining at the digital menu restaurants benefit from the cost-savings as well; students and staff on college and university meal plans can dine at FöD without incurring any up-charge or premium.

The touch-screens are not the only interactive feature at the digital menu restaurants, however. Jackie Baldwin, Executive Chef of FöD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), says FöD’s chefs and other staff interact directly with students. For example, she asks students what they did and didn’t like and what they would like to see changed. According to Baldwin, “That’s what drives satisfaction.”

Last month FöD’s chain of digital menu restaurants was one of five concepts to receive the 2011 Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) Hot Concept! award. Be sure to read our previous blog post, “FöD’s Digital Menu Restaurant Wins 2011 NRN Hot Concept! award.”