The 1887 Bistro will be open to students from 9 p.m. until midnight. Students can use a meal credit during the late-night period with an equivalency of $8.50. Lunch is catered more to faculty and staff and will require either dining dollars or some regular form of payment." />
Ben Salama
The 1887 Bistro will be open to students from 9 p.m. until midnight. Students can use a meal credit during the late-night period with an equivalency of $8.50. Lunch is catered more to faculty and staff and will require either dining dollars or some regular form of payment.
NC State’s new upscale dining facility, 1887 Bistro, is now open to the public. Tucked in a corner on the third floor of Talley Student Union, the new restaurant is set to bring a sit-down dining experience to campus with a menu of modernized Southern foods.
Working in the kitchen is a team of professional and accredited chefs from around the restaurant business, led by chef Corey Palakovich. Palakovich has been in the industry since he was 13, with a resume that includes experience as executive chef of Neomonde Baking Company and corporate chef of the Raleigh restaurant group giant, Empire Eats. He has also worked with the One Earth restaurant right here on campus.
The 1887 Bistro aims to fill a previously empty niche in the campus dining program. With its polished look and waited tables, the bistro appeals to those who want a more upscale place to dine. The bistro is meant to be the place to take a family member, friend or colleague when other campus dining options are not appropriate.
“University Dining wants to be representative of a week of dining an ordinary citizen would have,” said Jennifer Gilmore, director of marketing and communication of Campus Enterprises. “The 1887 Bistro’s addition helps to fulfill this goal.”
The bistro represents the occasional “fine dining” component of this meal schedule.
The menu boasts a variety of appetizers, entrees and desserts. Tender chimichurri steak skewers, hot firecracker shrimp and stuffed Arancini pomodoro with mozzarella are a few of the late-night entrees. They are joined by loaded flatbreads and a wide variety of salads with in-house dressings. For dessert, crème brûlée, lemon mousse and a cherry crostata are served up in Mason jars.
Sara Nicholson, a freshman new to on-campus dining in general, says the bistro is welcomed.
“It will add to the variety of Talley; I’m already getting tired of the same sort of meals,” Nicholson said.
The 1887 Bistro will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch specials, followed by a downtime in the evening reserved for special events, culinary demonstrations, food lectures and pre-show receptions for Stewart Theatre performances. The restaurant will reopen to the public at 9 p.m., when late-night meals are served. Open until midnight, students can use a meal credit during the late-night period with an equivalency of $8.50. Lunch, however, is catered more to faculty and staff and will require either dining dollars or some regular form of payment.
“It’s not like you’ll be paying a fortune for just a few fancy bites,” said Anthony Brown, manager of Pavilions Dining. “The prices are tuned so that you can get an appetizer or entree, as well as a drink that will surely fill you up.”
The rationale behind the afternoon and evening closing is to allow for what Gilmore calls “shaping.” Gilmore said she believes the students truly define what the purpose of a space is.
“There’s no sign stating that this group of chairs is for studying, or that this lounge area is supposed to be silent,” she said, referencing groups of students at various clusters in Talley Student Union. “We want the students to shape what the bistro location essentially is during the off hours.”
While the obvious function of the restaurant is for dining, at the end of the day, it’s the students’ place to go. The faculty hopes student interest will shape potential events to be held during these times.