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Design and Equipment

Also part of the Courtside Café is the Sunflower
BBQ Co. “The other concept that we wanted to put
together, because we are right outside of Kansas City,
is a barbecue concept,” said Petrino. “We wanted the
barbecue concept to be all local. All the meats and all of
the sauces that we do in that station are sourced locally.
We also make some of the sauces ourselves. Authenticity
was the whole driver behind the concept.”
Both the Prairie Fire Grill and the Sunflower BBQ
Co. make use of a smoker from
Alto-Shaam. “We will cook a
lot of the barbecue stuff in the
back of the house in the Alto-
Shaam smoker,” he said. “Most
of our chefs knew how to use
a combi oven with a smoker
attachment to it.”
Another concept in the
Courtside Café is Brella’s, a
proprietary sandwich and wrap
concept. Similar to other sand-
wich concepts, guests can cus-
tomize their sandwiches with
a variety of ingredients. They
can also have them toasted in
an impinger oven.
During the planning of the facility, Dining was also ap- only a couple hundred
proached by Freshens to be the first to launch a new concept seats in there. We could
for the brand. “They had a new expanded menu that they were fill up that marketplace
going to try out, and we were going to be the first customers to really fast.”
be able to utilize it,” said Petrino. “Along with their smoothie The second floor fea-
concept, they also had a salad bar concept, a savory crepe tures a location of the
concept and a rice bowl concept. They handed us that whole school’s popular Roast-
menu package and we put that all together in Courtside.” erie coffee concept, which features coffee beans roasted locally.
All of the locations in the Courtside Café are retail. “One of There are also grab ’n go items. “We have a merchandiser
the reasons that it was retail was just because of the uniqueness there and we make prepared sandwiches and salads,” said
of it and where it sits. It is in an area that has a lot of faculty Petrino. “We also have a bakery case of baked goods. It is
and staff, and not as many students,” he said. “Plus, I think mostly coffee, espresso, those kinds of things.”
the athletic department, because they were a big partner when The third floor is exclusively for both the men’s and women’s
we put everything together, wanted to keep it unique to them. basketball teams and their staff. “We put in a small service line
Also, to be frank, we just didn’t have the seating. There are that we could feed all of the people in a matter of minutes,” he
said. “It is almost like a line you would
find in a residential, all-you-care-to-eat
Custom tables were created to ac- facility. We enhanced the menu so they
commodate the basketball players will get a lot more beef, steaks and sea-
in their exclusive dining area. food. We work very closely with their
nutritionist to make sure they get what
they desire.”
Custom seating was also created by
Craig Coleman, a local woodworking
specialist, to accommodate the athletes
and their height. “The tables were built
so that they were about 3 inches taller
than a normal table,” he said. “All the
tables and the woodwork on the third
floor are the exact same type of wood that
they have on the court in the fieldhouse.”
As for the $4.3 million first rules of
basketball? They are safely protected and
on display on a bridge walkway between
the DeBruce Center and the Allen Field-
house. —OCH

12 | APRIL 2017 ON-CAMPUS HOSPITALITY