10.31.07 
Southeastern opens state-of-the-art dining facility, celebrates grand opening of Tuscana Ristorante

By Southeastern University

More than 500 people recently attended the grand opening of Tuscana Ristorante at Southeastern University.

The $7 million, 25,000-square-foot dining facility is centrally located on campus. The one-story facility serves the university's 3,400 students and employees, and is open to the public seven days a week.

In honor of the restaurant's opening and Southeastern's incredible growth in recent years, Lakeland Mayor "Buddy" Fletcher proclaimed October 16--the day of the grand opening--as "Southeastern University Day" in the City of Lakeland.

Southeastern built Tuscana Ristorante to keep up with its growth in enrollment. This semester, enrollment passed 3,000 students, almost 2,000 more students than the university boasted a decade ago.

The new restaurant seats 750 diners--350 more than Southeastern's old dining hall. Another 70 people can dine on the patio of the new restaurant. In addition to having more space for general dining, the new facility has banquet space that can accommodate 200 people; the public can rent this space for community and private events.

Chartwells, the foodservice provider of Southeastern, donated $2 million towards the building of Tuscana Ristorante. The foodservice company seems pleased with the results: "Of the 240 accounts that Chartwells serves nationwide, none has a facility more beautiful than Tuscana Ristorante at Southeastern University," said Chartwells President and CEO Steve Sweeney.

Wrought-iron chandeliers drape from the restaurant's 20-foot-high ceilings, and murals of food decorate the upper reaches of the central dining area. A presidential dining room, which can accommodate 30 people, features a fireplace and a 25-foot-high ceiling. The restaurant was designed in Southeastern's hallmark Mediterranean style featured throughout campus.

Beyond the bigger size and eyebrow-raising architecture, the new restaurant offers a dining experience different from the one in the old facility. While most of the food-serving stations in the old dining hall were lined up along walls, the stations in Tuscana Ristorante are islands spread throughout the restaurant. This setup facilitates a "marché" style of food service; "marché" is French for "market." Marché-style serving is a popular concept in the university foodservice industry, says John Kautz, Southeastern's vice president for finance and administration.

The Tuscana Ristorante islands that serve brick-oven pizza, rotisserie chicken, cappuccino and a wide selection of hard and soft-serve ice cream seem to be the most popular with Southeastern students. Tuscana Ristorante also has a meat-carving station, a salad bar, a deli bar, a station for deluxe entrees, a grill for hamburgers and other quick American fare, and a dessert station.

In addition to the food, students say they're impressed by the architecture, interior design details, and ambiance of the new dining facility.
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"It has a good feel to it. It's relaxing," said freshman Victor Garcia. "You don't feel like you have to eat and run."