The Pavilion: Serving Few, but Well

By John Kalb | Friday, March 1, 2002

'It takes a whole team of people—a village—to raise this thing,' said Tucker Rossiter, Director of Dartmouth Dining Services, referring to the Pavilion, Dartmouth's new Kosher, Halal, and Sakahara dining establishment. After several months of test runs, the Pavilion finally had its grand opening ceremony on January 8th.

'For generations, people assimilated. We became a melting pot...America truly becomes stronger when we request who we are... with the Pavilion, Dartmouth is saying to us, 'please come to our table. We want you to be comfortable as well,' said Dartmouth's Rabbi Boraz at the opening.

The key difficulty with merging the three different sets of rules was providing food that kept up to the strict standards of each system without being significantly more expensive or significantly less appetizing and varied than what can be found in other dining facilities on campus.

One problem at the Pavilion is its high prices, especially for kosher meat dishes, which typically cost two dollars more than their halal counterparts (which are somewhat more expensive still than dishes in Food Court) due to the high cost of kosher meat, as well as transport costs for the meat from Massachusetts, where the nearest kosher butchery is. According to Rabbi Boraz, The Pavilion is 'the only kosher restaurant in the State of New Hampshire.'

Even non-meat kosher dishes drew complaints due to their prices. 'Several of my friends and I went there to try it out, and the pizza was about $9, so we just turned back around,' Cara Kinsey, '02 said.

However, despite comments like, 'The feast is in the company, and not the menu,' from Al-Nur adviser Amin Plaisted, the quality of the food lives up to a fairly high standard, according to most students who eat there. Alex Glocer '02 commented, 'The food was pretty good compared to what's in the other dining areas, and they give you a lot of it, so I was happy.' The kosher Sesame Chicken, for example, was nearly identical to similar dishes in Food Court, but the meat was slightly better, which may have been due to its higher grade.

Among non-kosher, sakahara, or halal students, many feel that the price outweighs the benefit of going with friends. According to Richard Callahan '03, 'The food is a little bit more expensive, which means that since I'm pretty pragmatic, I wouldn't go there much, but I would definitely go there if I had a restricted diet for religious reasons.'

Still, some strict vegetarians have been taking advantage of the Sakahara (vegetarian with no fish, egg, or mushroom) dining option at the Pavilion. Marianne Karplus '04 said, 'I'm a big fan of the Pavilion. I think they have very yummy vegetarian food most of the time. And it's quite reasonably priced, too.'

On the subject of upholding the rules of each discipline, most diners are fairly happy. The Pavilion is certified by the Vaad Harabonim of New England as Glat kosher, which is the highest standard. Additionally, Dartmouth has not fallen into the trap that some other colleges and universities have fallen into, trying to make 'one size fits all' kosher dining. For example, at Wellesley College, the Kosher dining hall is completely vegetarian to save on the cost of having two kitchens and cleaning areas, as well as on the cost of kosher meat. Not all, however, are satisfied. One Sakahara student said, 'I think that they're doing a pretty good job, but I don't know if my grandmother would eat here.' The halal section has a separate station with a cart that is operated by the cashier; the halal rules allow the mixing of meat and milk but absolutely forbid anything containing alcohol, including common minor ingredients like vanilla extract.

One problem with the Pavilion is limited hours. It is only open for lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday, and even then, it is only open two hours for each meal, unlike many other dining locations on campus, which are open continuously and cater to students with diverse schedules. Additionally, because it does not serve breakfast on any day and kosher food on Friday and Saturday (the Pavilion being barred from serving kosher food from prohibitions on lighting fires and on working on the Sabbath day), the students who rely on the Pavilion are not invited to the table for all meals, although Kosher students can attend Friday night dinner at the Roth Center.

Drawing only between 50 and 100 customers per meal, with more people tending to go at dinner, compared to the 150-200 that Westside drew, the Pavilion is a quiet place to enjoy a meal. During peak dinner hours, many people who bought food in Food Court or Homeplate bring in their meals and watch the big-screen television, a holdover from Westside. So while the rowers, skiers, and other athletes that used to huddle around the TV watching SportsCenter are mostly gone, there has been no dominant group that has replaced them in vying for dominance of the area. For the most part, the students there are a cross section of Dartmouth students, with the majority of them having bought their food in other locations. Recently 'Arabian Nights' was held in the Pavilion, indicating that its management would like to create a more distinct flavor.

As a construction project, costs were kept to a minimum by keeping as much of the old Westside setup as possible. Old photographs of the fraternities and other college buildings still adorn the walls in the TV room, and the other dining room remains largely undecorated.

One hope of those who created the Pavilion is that it will attract additional strict kosher, halal, and sakahara students to campus. At this time, there are extremely few, as, until recently, it was difficult for strict adherents to find adequate food on campus, which forced students to either leave mainstream campus life in an important way or sacrifice their beliefs. According to Ariel Rubin '03, who adheres strongly to kashrut, 'I would say that I, like most other students who wanted to keep kosher, compromised what I would have ideally eaten. DDS did not waive my meal plan, so I ate a lot of salads and vegeterian sandwiches. I tried to prepare food for myself, although it's always hard to find time to do that. I also ate the frozen kosher dinners which used to be available in Food Court.'

Despite problems with limited hours and high prices, overall the Pavilion has managed to balance requirements well. The meals have been well-varied, which everything from hamburgers, chicken cacciatore, and chicken fajitas for kosher and halal patrons to tofu stir fry and cous cous for Sakahara adherants. While there is certainly room for improvement, Dining Services, with considerable help, has managed to increase its range of dining options for those with restrictive diets. For now, the Pavilion caters well to an extremely small minority of students on campus, including as few as one kosher student. Whether the Pavilion is worth its cost and the lost utility of Westside Buffet will only be clear if attendance of strictly kosher and halal students increases to make the dining facilities more viable.

The Pavilion: Serving Few, but Well

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