COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
DISCO FRIES (AND TOTS) TURN THE TIDE McVeagh is sure to call attention also to the Disco Fries, a “jazzed-up” French fry or tater tot basket with different toppings from week to week. The item doesn’t appear on a regular schedule, but it’s most often featured on weekends. “Sometimes it could be brown gravy and mozzarella, or other times kind of like Asian spice, like, bang bang sauce, on them, and things like that,” McVeagh says. “We have to have those because people like them so much. We’re always happy when they tell us how much they love those items.”
BIRRIA HYSTERIA AT VANDERBILT
Another exotic flavor profile becoming mainstream is the spiced-and-stewed meat birria, appearing on more restaurant menus across the country, as recently noted by Bret Thorn in our sister publication, Nation’s Restaurant News. And it’s one of the global influences slipping smoothly into campus dining. With seven dining halls, Vanderbilt University’s own university-managed dining program has a lot to cover, and the Nashville institution can point to a few stand-out menu items. One of those is the moist, meaty dinner favorite birria that’s spiking covers by 40% every Monday night when it’s served. “The birria is very authentic,” said Brian Cochrane, director of Culinary Operations, Campus Dining at Vanderbilt. “We have a sous chef from Mexico City, and she’s the one who developed that recipe.” After roasting the beef, the team makes an in-house, scratch stock with the drippings. Cochrane says “they’ll easily do 450” on birria nights, in a dining hall where the typical night pulls around 350.
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QUARTERLY | Q3
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ‘BAMA AND VANDERBILT
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