Associate Director Barbara Lusk shows one of the penpad computers used for bedside order entry.

Like Bandaleros, the concepts in Terrace Café are the product of Jim McGrody's imagination. The department's top culinarian not only developed the concepts and menus, but also concocted elaborate back stories for his brands. These are detailed at each station and provide some extra customer engagement, but it is the food that brings crowds of staff and visitors to Terrace Café.

For example, Cosimo's Pizza features not only fresh pies but also salads and Italian style entrees. The Flat Iron Grill offers fresh, to order grilled items. Chefs on the Move has made-to-order entrees such as pan-seared scallops over linguini. Carolina Chicken Co. has barbecue, and gourmet quality entrees sit ready at the Continental Traders station.

Desserts can be grabbed from a rack in the middle of the serving area and there is even a fresh-squeezed lemonade stand to augment the beverage choices on select days. For those in a hurry, there is an extensive grab-and-go cooler featuring everything from salads and sandwiches to sushi and hummus in the Fast Breaks section.

Mojica has several new retail outlets that are currently in various stages of planning and construction. One is a cafe with ample seating expected to open later this year. It will include a pair of concepts that will menu from-scratch soups, grilled flatbreads and made to order salads along with artisan breads and gourmet baked goods and pastries.

The venue will also extend UNCH Dining's “green” credentials, as it will encompass not only the department's composting program by using completely compostable packaging and tableware, but will also utilize local produce as much as possible.

Local foods are already being incorporated into menus where possible, and Mojica has highlighted this connection by initiating a series of weekly farmers markets during the summer growing season. Each Wednesday, a group of local growers come and set up stands in the spacious front lobby area of UNCH's children's hospital (see cover photo), giving staff and visitors a chance to purchase fresh local product, and giving the participating farmers a chance to make connections with customers.

Looking Ahead

A more ambitious project is an extensive retail venue that will be part of the new cancer hospital. Scheduled to debut in November 2010, it will be a coffeehouse concept that will offer comfortable couch seating and a large outdoor patio garden. It will menu an extended line of grab-and-go food selections (onsite meal preparation was dropped because of fears that cooking odors might filter up through the facility and disturb oncology patients).

The coffeehouse is expected to be a branded operation designed to be a prototype of a new, extended version of a traditional small-footprint coffeehouse venue.

In addition to the quality of the food choices, retail sales have also been boosted by a cashless payment option from FreedomPay that earns users a 20 percent discount. It currently accounts for about a third of retail sales, with another third coming from traditional credit card payment and the rest from straight cash.

Mojica justifies the discount accruing to the FreedomPay payment option because it increases the speed of transactions and allows more customers to patronize UNCH's fairly small retail spaces.

Currently, about 2,500 customers have signed up for the program, including about a thousand from the nearby school of medicine for whom UNCH's retail dining outlets are an increasingly attractive option.