The Grill has new lighting, new equipment and a new menu for students who have been waiting for the eatery to reopen since it closed in June for upgrades.
Much to the delight of Guilford students – and chicken sandwich aficionado Julius Rice ’25 in particular – The Grill is back open at Guilford College. Students have been lining up to eat there all week after a four-month renovation and expansion project to the space in the basement of Founders Hall.
“It’s great to be giving students an option again,” says Zeb Knight, Director of Dining Services for Meriwether Godsey, Guilford’s dining services provider. “I think students are going to like the changes we’ve made.”
Many of those changes are obvious. A ping pong table and pool table are now part of The Grill as are a milkshake and smoothie center, where the old counter used to be. There’s also new LED lighting and a polished concrete floor. Other changes are below the surface (new plumbing and drains) or behind walls (updated electrical work). The grill itself has moved across the room.
The new layout and menu are nice, but what Julius is most happy about is the return of his beloved chicken sandwich with a layer of mozzarella cheese. “That’s my go-to at The Grill,” he says.
Julius (above) and more than two dozen other students were standing in line for The Grill to open for lunch Wednesday. Before its closing in June, he always relied on The Grill for lunch or dinner whenever the entree at the cafeteria upstairs wasn’t to his liking. But when The Grill shut down he was forced to make a sandwich at the cafeteria when the menu didn’t suit him. “It wasn’t so bad, but it’s nice to have options, he said, noshing on fries in The Grill.
Other students think the same. At Tuesday’s grand reopening, the Grill took 822 orders.
Chicken nuggets have historically been The Grill’s best seller over the years. Zeb says 75 percent of all orders are for nuggets. That doesn’t mean there’s not room to expand the menu. He says The Grill will run daily specials and, if students respond positively, they might add those specials to the menu on a regular basis.
Zeb says the new kitchen is designed to offer flexibility to the menu down the road. “Let’s say we don’t want to always be a chicken and burger joint – we want it to be an ethnic, maybe Asian (restaurant). We’ve given ourselves the flexibility that we can still use the equipment we have for those types of changes.”
Renovations and upgrades to The Grill were more than $500,000 with the College and Meriwether Godsey sharing the costs.