Changes to catering services

Restaurant WOKA in the HIT building on the Hönggerberg campus is soon to be operated by a new company: the Two Spice catering group will take over from Eldora, and the restaurant’s infrastructure will be modified slightly at the same time. It is scheduled to reopen in spring 2018 under the new name Rice Up!. As the name suggests, the restaurant will continue to offer high-quality Asian fusion cuisine at reasonable prices.

“This is the first time that an established catering company has been chosen with no previous involvement in community catering,” says Marcel Zurbuchen, who is responsible for coordinating partner companies at ETH. However, the company does run many successful restaurants with a variety of concepts, including in Zurich, he adds.

Space for eating, working and events

Eldora’s move will also be used as an opportunity to adapt the current foodLAB, the restaurant in the former chemistry building (CAB), to the changed needs of its users – academic as well as culinary. “The Department of Computer Science urgently needs more meeting rooms and permanently accessible workspaces for students,” explains Zurbuchen. The location also needs to provide space for a comfortable meeting spot and for events, and so in future, the whole space will be able to be subdivided and flexibly used.

Street food from around the world

“The new design reflects the trend towards takeaway and street food,” says Zurbuchen, which is why a deli counter will be offering wraps, salads, pastries and hot and cold drinks throughout the day. There will also be a range of western and eastern street food such as burgers, burritos, pizza, kebabs, satay and vegetarian options. “The reopening is scheduled for summer 2018,” says Zurbuchen.  “We are examining whether we can introduce a temporary catering range while there are no renovations happening, and if the room can be made available for studying throughout the whole day.”

Everything will remain as it was in Bistro CHN next door. It is scheduled to reopen from the beginning of the semester, on 19 February 2018. Both businesses in the CAB and CHN buildings will be operated by the same caterer; an evaluation of potential operators is currently ongoing.

Dozentenfoyer temporarily closed

There are also changes to be made to the catering infrastructure in the main building: the roof, goods lift and ventilation system in the Dozentenfoyer need to be refurbished. The restaurant will therefore be closed from 22 December 2017 to the end of February 2018. Service is scheduled to resume on Monday 5 March 2018. As an alternative, guests can make use of Bellavista at Hönggerberg, Polysnack in the main building and the Clausiusbar in the CLA building.