Where’s the beef?
The people of Utah State University want a nice burger.
Over a year ago, two men planned to open a restaurant on the corner of 700 North and 800 East. They conducted a market analysis before they opened to see what type of food USU students wanted.
Students didn’t want a sandwich shop, they didn’t want salads and they didn’t want fast food. They wanted a genuinely nice hamburger. The voice of the people had spoken.
Hence Morty’s Café was born and the specialties burgers hit the grill. Co-owner Preston Parker said a year later, business is still booming and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, the café just released a new specialty burger.
“A nice burger is a luxury,” Parker said. “We have been open a little more than a year. We are selling more than double the number of burgers that we had projected that we would sell.”
The hamburger-loving trend carries over onto campus in the Marketplace, which feeds about between 1,500 and 2,000 students per day.
“In the dining halls, it’s their [USU students] favorites,” said executive director for USU dining services Alan Andersen. “We sell hamburgers and cheeseburgers like they are going out of style. We sell a ton of those.”
Andersen said they run reports to see what items are selling in the retail locations around campus. The report for nine retail locations on campus indicates beef items equaled about 28 percent of the total sales for the first month of school. That number doesn’t reflect sales from the Marketplace, Junction or Skyroom.
“As you look at what we sell… we’re looking at what’s selling and what’s not selling,” Andersen said. “Our job is to sell what the students, faculty and guests want.”
Marketplace executive chef and manager Rich Peterson said students claim they want diversity, but most of time that simply isn’t true.
“You’ll see Nick, Tom and Sally come in here every day and they’ll get a bacon cheeseburger three out of the five days they’re here,” Peterson said. “A lot of that has to do with the psychological stuff too. You are so used to driving around town and there are burger joints all over the place. It’s quick fast food, and it’s cheap.
The amount of beef served at USU comes as a surprise for some.
“You have people that come here form other countries, and they can’t believe that we have so much beef,” Peterson said. “They are like, ‘Wow, that’s expensive. Where’s all your fish?’”
Peterson said he tries to serve salmon to students on Fridays because they do love it. He serves between 120 and 150 pounds on fish day, but can’t serve salmon every day due to its high cost.
Another rival for beef is chicken, which is a big hit with students who eat at the Marketplace. Peterson said it’s easy to serve chicken because it’s a cheaper commodity protein that students like.
“[The price of] chicken stays pretty stable throughout the whole entire year. Everyone is going to eat chicken. Chicken is in every area [of the Marketplace]. We go through a lot of chicken,” Peterson said.
Julianne Anchling, a senior in business administration, eats at the marketplace every day and prefers beef over chicken.
“If there is beef, I’ll take beef,” she said. “I don’t eat chicken a lot here. I love red meat. I am from France — red beef is big time. It’s just too good.”
Anchling, who plays on the USU women’s basketball team, confessed that she loves cheeseburgers and eats them once every two weeks as a cheat day.
Peterson said he takes into account what he likes, what other people like and the trends that are in the magazines when he plans the menu. Price is another big factor.
“I’m always looking for a good deal on product,” he said. “Right now beef is kind of low because of Christmas season. It always is.”
Peterson said he doesn’t jeopardize what goes on the menu. No matter what, he still wants to deliver a good product.
That might pan out to be good news for beef-loving students. Bacon cheeseburgers will continue to be a hot item at the grill and students can look to the Mama Blues section in the Marketplace for a few more beef dishes during the winter season.
— elizabeth.dalton@aggiemail.usu.edu
@eddthegirl