What’s New at Cowpie Café
Harley Woods | September 30, 2021
Ruby Jane Moser
Over the summer of 2021, Cowpie Café underwent a complete renovation. The project began in the spring semester and carried on throughout the summer. The General Manager of Dining Services for the past twenty years, Brian O’Loughlin, said that the summer was the perfect time to do the renovation after the college cancelled all summer conferences.
Included in Cowpie’s fresh appearance are new flooring, a new serving station, new furniture, a new coat of paint, outdoor fire pits and a new clear window for writing labels above the serving area.
“The design was done by an architecture firm that we hired and who we told what we were looking for,” O’Loughlin said. “What is still yet to come is the outdoor furniture, which is on backorder.”
The new Sustainability Marketing Coordinator and Supervisor of Local Foods Crew, Annie McGehrin, also contributed some words to the purpose behind the renovation.
“(Sodexo) wanted it to be more communal, especially in that big room, so people can come and hang out and do their homework — spot where everyone wants to be,” said McGehrin.
The renovation was negotiated between Sodexo and Warren Wilson College (WWC) as a sort of renewal agreement for the upcoming expiration of Sodexo’s contract.
“We had a ten-year contract that was getting ready to expire; this would be the last year of the contract, so we went ahead and made a proposal to re-sign the contract for another ten years and we would invest money towards the renovations,” said O’Loughlin.
In addition to a new look, Cowpie welcomed a new Head Chef and Supervisor of Cowpie Café, Sarah Wesserling, who has worked in the food service industry for twenty years.
“The project to renovate Cowpie was seen as an investment by Sodexo,” said Wesserling. “Let’s invest in the school and let’s make the places we have and the dining services easy to enjoy.”
Cowpie’s renovation is not all that is new to the café. Under Wesserling’s leadership, the menu at Cowpie will be expanded.
“The first week I asked for a lot of student and staff input on the menu. What they wanted to see come back and what they liked,” Wesserling said. “There’s already kind of a recipe book in place, so I’ve been doing some things out of that (and) trying to incorporate some new things.”
Many students have commented on the change in routine regarding Pad Thai Tuesdays, which has not gone unnoticed by the crew.
“I’m hearing mixed reviews about it,” Wesserling said. “I’ve been offering it every other week and Gladfelter does offer it occasionally as well. The pad thai is good and we will be offering it, but I also want there to be a chance to get some new favorites.”
Although Wesserling is the head chef on the Cowpie Crew, O’Loughlin oversees not only Gladfelter, but also Cowpie and Owl’s Nest. McGehrin wants students to understand more about what goes into O’Loughlin’s job and that Gladfelter is more than just a cafeteria.
“Being a smaller school too it’s more of a community in a way that, if you do have a dietary restriction you can just go talk to Brian and they’ll help you out tremendously,” McGehrin said.
McGehrin pointed out that there is much more going into dining services and into meal plans than it may appear on face-value.
“This school has a good opportunity to do the things that we do with Sodexo,” said McGehrin. “Sodexo is a huge influence on and in the world. One thing that students don’t know is that Brian gets phone calls quite often from other universities about how we are doing the things that we’re doing.”
Currently dining services uses about 25-34% locally purchased food. McGehrin described her role as being the bridge between dining services and the student body and hopes to bring in more local food options.
“We want to get out there in the community and have those resources available and have that freeform communication with the Local Foods Crew and me, so if you have questions just come to me,” McGehrin said.