Inn at DePauw providing dining space for university

Friday, June 17, 2016
The courtyard east of the Inn at DePauw is occupied by a dining tent, as the hotel's social center serves as a food service area for the university.

For 30 years, the Inn at DePauw has functioned as a sort of gateway between the Greencastle community and DePauw University.

Owned by the university but managed by an outside company -- Dora Hospitality since 2010 -- the Inn models itself as a welcoming space for the university and the larger community alike, providing accomodations, meeting and banquet spaces and a pair of restaurants, among other services.

In a time of transition at DePauw, however, the Inn is serving a dual purpose in the coming months, presenting some unique challenges to management at the Inn.

With Hoover Dining Hall still under construction, but the Hub -- the old dining area -- also in transition, the university needed temporary extra space for food preparation and dining.

While other options such as tents and food trucks were considered, university administrators ultimately decided the Inn at DePauw Social Center would be turned into a temporary dining hall from the beginning of summer through the end of October.

Between Monday and Wednesday of this week, operations at the Inn underwent a drastic change.

"In two days, we've moved the entire catering operation. We've moved The Duck and 2 West into one kitchen," hotel General Manager Michele Faison told the Banner Graphic. "And Bon Appetit has moved into the tent, the kitchen and the social centers."

With the catering and meeting operation normally utilizing both the Social Center and the basement, the operation has been condensed into the lone meeting space in the basement.

"The social center is completely taken," Faison said. "We've moved our operations completely downstairs."

Likewise, operations at 2 West and The Fluttering Duck, the Inn's two adjacent restaurants, have been streamlined.

"We've kind of made a limited menu -- the best of both," Faison said.

The changes in the social center at the building's east end have been profound, a point that is obvious even from outside.

The courtyard east of the building now contains a large tent that provides overflow dining space for the social center, while Bon Appetit occupies kitchen space normally utilized for the Inn's catering operation.

Although most students won't be back on campus for a couple of months, the university provides dining throughout the summer for summer camps as well as for students who remain on campus or return early for sports or other reasons.

While the changes are certainly a challenge for hotel staffers, their main concern is with the customers they serve.

"For us, it's really hard to be in hospitality and have to use the 'no' word," Smoot said. "It's been hard to say no, not because we don't want them but because there's not space."

In other cases, it's not a matter of saying no, but of just finding creative ways to continue to serve groups such as the 100 Women Who Care, 100 Men Who Care, Rotary and Kiwanis.

"We host a lot of not-for-profit groups so we've had to figure out how to accommodate them," Smoot said.

For now, those groups are having their recurring meetings in downstairs space.

Another solution was conducting the recent annual dinner of the Putnam County Community Foundation in the DePauw Union Ballroom.

In one particular case, though, no suitable solution was found. For several years Greencastle music scene favorite Average House Band has been having an annual reunion at the Inn at DePauw. A number of possibilities were discussed with band members, but they ultimately decided to take the year off.

"We hated to see that happen because that's always a good event," Faison said.

It remains a challenge, to be sure, but Faison and Smoot remain positive about the positive changes on the horizon.

For the university, this will be a new dining hall, including an outdoor plaza in the space that once was the Hub. The goal is to have this work all completed by the last week of October.

With that done, attention will turn to transitioning the Inn back to its normal operations, with some renovations along the way.

"We have to remind ourselves it's only temporary and this too shall pass," Smoot said.

"We will come back with a more beautiful space," Faison said. "Hopefully we'll open our doors for a 30th New Year's Eve party."

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  • Lots of people hated to see AHB get shuffled off after it was a guarantee to be able to host there.

    Maybe they can find a new location for next year!!!

    -- Posted by foxtrotter on Sat, Jun 18, 2016, at 8:23 AM
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