Although UCR welcomed students back for the fall 2021 quarter, not all campus resources or centers were ready to open following the pandemic. Restaurants around the university and at the HUB, as well as residential dining halls, were met with the challenge of being understaffed. This challenge resulted in the closing of Lothian’s dining hall and delayed the opening of other student-favorite restaurants.
Hibachi-San and Subway are the most recent HUB restaurants to reopen after being closed most of the first semester. Their delayed openings gave students few options of places to eat on campus. Panda Express, Chronic Tacos and The Habit, along with Coffee Bean, were the only establishments in the HUB accessible to students. Some Scotty locations and other restaurants still remain closed.
While Hibachi-San and Subway have reopened, their hours are still limited. Hibachi-San is open Mondays through Fridays, except Tuesdays, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or when they run out of ingredients for the day. Subway is open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The other restaurants in the HUB stay open until about 7 p.m., in comparison.
The Barn restaurant and bar is also operating on a compromised schedule. Following a delayed opening, it is open for patio service Mondays through Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. Patio service includes drinks and appetizers only.
The reason for these delayed openings has been caused by a lack of student workers. The restaurants have had difficulty finding enough laborers to fully staff the restaurants. The residential dining halls have also been affected by this problem. Only a few weeks into the fall quarter, Lothian’s dining hall was closed so that all student dining hall workers could fully staff Glasgow, UCR’s newest dining hall. There has still been no update as to when Lothian will reopen.
With classes being 95% in person for the winter quarter, these restaurants should soon reopen fully to meet the new influx of students.
Students wanting to work on-campus at one of these establishments can apply at dining.ucr.edu/employment/student-employment.
