Café 84 closure makes way for additional student dining options


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A 24-hour Starbucks will replace Café 84 this fall, according to Erik Russell, associate director of residential dining at USC Hospitality. Along with this change, the new dining hall at USC Village will serve both residents at the complex and West Residential College.

“One of the main things that students have been looking for is a study space, something that’s open 24 hours, that’s not a library,” Russell said.

Russell said that side of campus was underserved with study spaces and that the new Starbucks will provide a space for students to do work and study. He also said that USC Hospitality is looking to add a food vendor along with the Starbucks at that location. However, the exact vendor has yet to be determined.

Though the new dining hall will be closer to Fluor and Webb towers than either Everybody’s Kitchen or Parkside Restaurant and Grill, former Fluor Tower residential adviser Cindy Andrade said that having to walk off campus will be inconvenient for residents at West Residential College.

“I think it is nice that [USC Village] will have its own dining hall, but Fluor and Webb residents did not have nearby dining halls on weekends [prior to this change] and now they have to go somewhere else everyday,” Andrade said. “I think it’s sad that they’re removing Café 84 from that area.”

Despite the closure, the new dining hall at USC Village will be open on weekends unlike Café 84, Russell said. He added that it will accommodate roughly twice the amount of people as Café 84, and will feature an all plant-based dining station, which he said students had requested.

“I think that kind of makes up for it a little bit because Café 84 wasn’t open on weekends so that was inconvenient because I had to go across campus,” former Fluor resident Karel Cobian said.

Russell also added that thanks to the closure of Café 84, one of the dining halls will be able to stay open during spring break, which he said was one of the concerns students had during the year. In addition, Everybody’s Kitchen will be open an extra hour each day, closing at 11 p.m. for students living in that area.

“We’ve been working with the Office of Residential Education, really trying to meet the students’ needs,” Russell said.

Café 84 was originally built during the 1984 Olympics to serve as a dining option for athletes. The Café 84 space used to serve as a food court, but became a residential dining hall in 2013.

USC Housing declined to comment.