The Otter Den, Otterbein’s made-to-order alternative to the Cardinal’s Nest, has seen a surge in traffic this fall with it’s newly modified menu.
The menu has seen additions, tweaks to existing items, and the removal of less popular fare. Debbie Robinson, the General Manager for Bon Appetit at Otterbein, said that the request for change came from Robert Gatti, Dean of Students, in the summer.
Robinson then went on to explain how the process worked. “We can pull everything, a list of every sandwich, every time period was sold and so we knew what was popular and what wasn’t popular. We started by deleting things that just didn’t sell and then we started adding.”
Notable changes include locally sourced ground beef replacing shredded brisket throughout the menu, the removal of Den chips, and the addition of mac and cheese fritters to the sides menu.
The changes seem to have had a great effect. Robinson stated that the Den has seen a 20% increase in foot traffic from previous years in these first few weeks of the semester.
The Den’s surge in popularity has created concerns in the Bon Appetit staff over wait times, and the cause seems to lie with the fritters. “It’s been very popular, almost everybody is taking it. The problem being that it takes almost four minutes for it to heat up, and so that’s slowing down the line.”
In response to these concerns Robinson said that Den staff are being trained for speed, but also emphasized that the staff have a limited workspace at their disposal. Despite wait times, the positive response is projected to continue, with Robinson saying “I like to think that since we’ve improved the quality and we’re just trying to expand the boundaries downstairs, that it’s worth the wait.”
Several first year students were there, Max Sheridan, Michael Anderson, and Britne Conley expressed opinions of their experience. They each noted that they enjoyed the convenience the Den offers, with Conley additionally saying that the staff are “very nice and pretty efficient.”
With a positive result from both sales and students, it seems that the changes are here to stay. Robinson expressed that the Den menu will continue to be perfected, and the student body can expect more changes in the future. “We’ve got a lot of things fixed, and now we’re just trying to test our boundaries to try to get you a better quality of product and something different.”
