New year, new eats: the Hub 2025

The Hub, Utah State University’s food court, always grows and changes to meet the campus community’s needs. Located on the bottom floor of the Taggart Student Center, students and faculty can expect some changes within the next couple of months.

Alan Andersen, executive director of USU Dining Services, explained these changes as a “domino effect.” Some preexisting eateries on campus will be moving while new ones arrive in their place. One of the most prominent changes is the removal and new location of Caffe Ibis.

“We’re still committed to them, and our partnership is not changing. The plan is to still have Caffe Ibis in the Skyroom — still have it in catering,” Andersen said. “We’re not getting rid of Caffe Ibis. In the Hub, we are removing it.”

Caffe Ibis’s coffee is still available in multiple locations across campus, such as Noni’s Coffee Shop and The Forum Cafe.

“Most of the coffee sold here on campus is Caffe Ibis. The grades are local roaster. They’re very sustainably focused, so great partners,” Andersen said.

One reason for moving Caffe Ibis is the integration of Starbucks into the TSC by fall. This will result in Starbucks leaving the Noelle E. Cockett Life Sciences Building. Additionally, Dining Services is looking to create another STEEPED location serving Starbucks in the Lundstrom Student Living Center.

“We want to put Starbucks inside the Campus Store. That’ll give us a really great blend to have that — people can sit in there and enjoy,” Andersen said. “Starbucks offers us a huge financial incentive — basically discounted some of the finishings and things like that. Very serious numbers I don’t want to share, but let’s just say it’s over six figures.”

Keean Janson, assistant director over retail operations, is conceptualizing ideas on what to replace the STEEPED old location with.

“One of the things we’re thinking of right now is actually creating a focus on meeting dietary needs so we can stay away from all the top allergens. We’ll make sure it’s gluten free and nut free and all that kind of thing,” Janson said. “We want to try to diversify them enough to get a broad amount of people to go there.”

Those whose New Year resolutions include visiting the Aggie Recreation Center more often may be excited by the new Shake Smart location replacing Caffe Ibis’s spot in the Hub.

According to Shake Smart’s LinkedIn profile, the business was started by two San Diego State University students in 2011 to make healthy food more accessible to college students. Their USU location will consist mostly of smoothies and protein bowls.

“They’d have a kiosk in the ARC, so you get done exercising, you can come over there, just enter what you want and order it. By the time you walk over here to the Hub where Caffe Ibis is, you can pick that up,” Andersen said.

Another new addition to the Hub seeks to make the ordering process more efficient. At the beginning of the spring semester, everything in the Hub will be ordered either on the Mobile Order app or one of the new available kiosks.

“We finally got the kiosks up and running so that people can order without having to go through the app. But most people I’ve talked to that use the app love using the app,” Janson said. “They’ve been really enjoying being able to order their food ahead of time and just go pick it up and go back to their office or whatever it is that they’re doing. I think it’s been a success.”

A potential addition to the Hub that didn’t work out was a Chick-fil-A. In its place is Chester’s Chicken, described by Andersen as a mix of KFC and Chick-fil-A.

“A lot of people ask us, ‘Why not Chic-fil-A?’ We will spend less money, well about the same amount of money, to completely bring in Chester’s as we would on the franchise fee for Chick-fil-A,” Andersen said. “They pretty much wanted to be the only business in the food court.”

During the first week of February, the Hub will have a “grand reopening” where they will have different promotions. Dining Services will be partnering with the USUSA during Casino Night to serve Chester’s Chicken to partygoers, and there will be specials at the Hub’s different restaurants that whole week.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on that week, and we’re partnering with them throughout the week to do some prizes at different events, like the High Stakes Bingo,” Andersen said. “Some fun things like free tacos once a week for a year for some students or something like that.”