With lines out the door, the old In the Nood location often saw students patiently waiting to use their Plus Dollars and meal swipes on noodles and sushi. This fall, this section of Newcomb Hall will keep the lines but lose the meals as University Dining opens its second on-Grounds Starbucks location.
The new Starbucks location opened Aug. 22. The coffeehouse took the place of In the Nood, where students could previously purchase sushi and Asian fusion dishes. A new University Dining-run location, Wahoo Nori, will open in Pavilion XI and feature some of the favorite items from the old In the Nood menu, namely sushi and poke. Dumplings and other noodle dishes from In the Nood will be available at the Fresh Food Company dining hall in Newcomb, with Dumpling Tuesdays becoming a regular event.
The new location will be open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
Aramark Marketing Manager Scott Aebersold said they were considering keeping the store open 24 hours a day during finals, since it has exterior doors and could remain open when Newcomb closes. In comparison, the Nau Hall Starbucks must close when Nau Hall does, meaning it doesn’t have weekend hours and isn’t open past 7 p.m. during the week. Like the Nau location, the Newcomb Starbucks will accept Plus Dollars.
Aebersold said the decision to open a Starbucks in Newcomb stemmed from student feedback on favorite coffee brands and preferred locations. The consensus was a desire for a Central Grounds coffee shop and Starbucks as an easy, popular favorite. The University also conducted a survey to figure out what brands weren’t represented on Grounds and what students wanted to see more of.
“The Starbucks at Newcomb Hall is uniquely situated in central Grounds and will be extremely convenient to the faculty, staff, visitors, and community members here at U.Va.,” Aebersold said in an email.
The new location has seen plenty of business so far, and University Dining is already referring to it as its “flagship store” on the Dining website.
The University only got approval to open the Starbucks in May, so most of the preparations for the new location happened over the summer. The Starbucks opened in time for move-in weekend, prepared to caffeinate students and parents swarming Grounds.
First-year College student Candace Miu, who lives off of McCormick Road, said she was likely to go to the Starbucks because it was closer to her than similar options on the Corner.
“It looks really clean and neat and it looks like a good environment for friends or to study,” Miu said.
The inside features a spacious interior with long couches and multiple tables for students to hang out. Chairs on the outside wall are numerous but lack access to an electrical outlet.
Julia Calland, a first-year College student from the Charlottesville area, said replacing In the Nood’s full menu with a Starbucks limits the originality of on-Grounds dining locations.
“I was looking forward to exploring options that I didn’t have outside of the University,” Calland said. “Which is why maybe … [I’m] ambivalent because there’s already a Starbucks [on] the Corner.”
Calland and other first years first heard about the new Starbucks during summer orientation, when the University publicized its opening to incoming students. Other students, like third-year College student Lily Hungarland saw the news on Associate Dean Jeannine Lalonde’s Instagram.
Though Hungarland was excited to hear about the new Starbucks, she does not picture herself visiting Newcomb for coffee very often.
“I’d go to Nau [for Starbucks] more since I live closer to it,” Hungarland said.
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