The secret’s out on Field of Greens and it’s growing as quickly as the snow is falling outside the UC.
Like Marvin Gaye, it was all heard through the grapevine.
“My friends told me about it,” Cristen Perry, undecided freshman, said. “It’s been really good. I like it here so far.”
Some marketing has also helped to spread the word.
“When it first opened, we really pushed it and it got to the point where word-of-mouth was getting around,” Matthew Perry, Aramark marketing coordinator, said. “We have a really tight-knit group of students. … Of the students that we polled, we found were frequent diners with us here at Field of Greens. I think the average (was around) two or three times a week. The group we do have is getting here, you know; they’re frequent diners with us. It got to the point where it’s almost like a ‘best-kept secret’ in a way.”
Although Perry is undecided on her major, when it comes to her lunch stop on the third floor of the UC, the freshman and her friend, Meghan Herod, sophomore in interior design, are sold.
“It’s great,” Herod said. “I love it here. I love the chips.”But students have plenty to love other than the chips, whether it’s the Buffalo Chicken Ranch Wrap or Greek-A-licious salad. Or maybe even the results of showing off culinary secrets of their own with the “Create-Your-Own Salad/Wrap” special.
Employees say that the popular choice has been the Summertime Strawberry wrap, which comes with spinach, lettuce, strawberries, craisins, oranges, onions, Feta cheese, bacon and all drenched in raspberry vignette; guests can choose to leave out any of the ingredients.
“Tell me where you can get that,” employee Bridgett Graham said. “You can’t.”
According to cashier Larry Noe, since the spring semester began, 1,375 customers have lined up to get in on the third floor secret; nearly 300 customers were on record for a three-hour day in the opening five-day span.
“I love it,” Noe said. “I’ve adopted all the kids and they’ve adopted me.”
“Everyone works great together and even after work it’s a great atmosphere,” manager Pam McGee said. “(Students) get to come up here and get together and study. They can make themselves feel like they’re at home because they can come in somewhere like this and sit down better.”
That turnout is even more impressive considering Field of Greens was supposed to be, what Perry called, a “short-fix.”
“Back in 2011, we divided the dining rotation here,” Perry said, “and it was really to address the seating issue downstairs.”
Though the Greens’ rapid growth does present challenges, student seating hasn’t been one of them.
“Last semester we were at a point where we were having a line going out down the hallway,” Perry said. “This semester, we’ve been able to produce a second line; we were able to move people through the line faster so our goal this semester is to really start getting the word out now.”
Herod mentioned a few suggestions for Field of Greens, some of which the UC’s third-floor stop has managed to meet.
“Only thing would be the line,” Herod said, “but they’ve already improved the line by adding (one). Usually it’s one line going down but then it’s two; it’s a little faster.”
The other would be possibly building another Field of Greens.”They should (build another location), maybe another building across campus,” Herod said.
