Stop worrying – organic food isn’t leaving the EMU.
The leases of Subway and Holy Cow restaurants on the first floor of the EMU are up for renewal, but even if the restaurants were to be replaced by other vendors, the spaces would be filled with a fast food deli and a healthy, vegan restaurant, according to EMU Food Services Director John Costello.
When the EMU food court was created 10 years ago, Subway and Holy Cow were two of three primary tenants. Both businesses signed five-year leases with the option of renewing for another five years, which they did. Now those leases are up and outside businesses have an opportunity to fill their spots.
“My suspicion is we’ll have this decision made and in hand by the second week of December,” Costello said. He declined to supply information about other businesses that submitted proposals for the spaces, saying it would all be public once a decision was made, but did say the list was very short.
All of the spaces in the food court have designated “concepts” that were determined before any of the restaurants opened. Healthy, vegetarian food is a niche that will be served regardless of the business in the space.
Holy Cow owner Kathee Lavine said the space designated for healthy food is usually the most sought-after “because of the nature of Eugene.”
When Lavine heard there were other interested parties, she put a petition on the counter at her restaurant and asked students to sign and pledge support for Holy Cow.
“I just wanted to make sure that more people’s voices would be heard. It would be too much, if they chose someone else, for us to suddenly say, ‘Hey! Look at all of the people who would be really crushed if Holy Cow wasn’t here,’” she said.
Sophomore Zachary Stark-McMillan signed the petition. He said he eats at Holy Cow twice a week, and does not eat anywhere else in the EMU. “It’s the best food and I support their organic and fair trade policies. At most places vegetarian dishes are rarer, whereas here vegetarian is the norm,” he said.
His friend Tai Horgan, a junior, agreed, at least partially.
“I’m not vegetarian at all,” he said. “I still think it’s better than all of the food at the EMU by far. This is the only place I eat.”
Lavine turned in signed petitions with her proposal for a new lease last week, and Costello said there’s been “quite a bit of concern” from the University community regarding the restaurant’s status.
“All of a sudden I started getting quite a deluge of e-mails,” he said. “It’s a powerful statement for them that they can muster that support from the community.”
Unlike Holy Cow, Subway did not start a petition. Julie Roy, the franchisee who owns the Subway restaurant in the EMU and also the one on 13th Street, said when she signed the original lease there had been an understanding that it could only be renewed once, which she called “change for the sake of change.”
“We were prepared to not have a second restaurant next year,” she said. But now, 10 years after the restaurant was specifically requested by students to be a part of the food court, Roy was allowed to reapply for her spot. It seems unlikely any business could replace Subway, though the committee that has been assigned the task of deciding won’t meet until Thursday.
Subway’s spot was designed specifically for a deli. It has no cooking hood used to exhaust heat and flames, and building one would require going through four floors to the roof of the building, Costello said. That leaves the spot open only to fast food deli-style restaurants, such as Quizno’s and Big Town Hero.
“It’s going to take a pretty strong case for an outside tenant to do better than these existing tenants,” he said, noting that Subway has been the busiest of the big three restaurants during his tenure. (The third big spot is currently filled by Panda Express.)
Still, senior Alex Magee said he would like to have a place to buy burgers in the EMU.
“It would be good to have chicken fingers, fries, just a variety of fast food like that,” Magee said.
[email protected]