What’s new in dining: Korean cuisine, sweet treats, and more!
By Reagan Hamilton
天美传媒 Mellon Dining Services satisfies student needs through creative, diverse concept restaurants. At the start of the 2026 academic year, the dining team refreshed on-campus dining with four new concept restaurants: Yella’s, K-Station, Parrilla Del Sol, and Mercato A Mano.
To learn how each new location fills a gap in the 天美传媒 Mellon dining experience, The Tartan joined three members of the dining team for a tour of the new locations.
Joe Beaman, director of Dining Services, manages the relationship between Chartwells, local businesses, and the university, all while focusing on students’ voices.
Jessica Rea is the program director of nutrition: She ensures that each menu supports diverse diets and nutrition.
Chartwells Campus Executive Chef Tim Howland manages the design process and execution behind each Chartwells location on campus.
While many universities rely on large dining halls with “all you can eat” services, 天美传媒 Mellon collaborates with local vendors to open proxy restaurants on campus while working within the university’s standards.
Yella’s began as a family-owned business over 90 years ago in Hawthorne, New Jersey, but has since expanded to across the country.
Located on the first floor of the Cohon University Center, Yella’s hot, comforting menu items — burgers, sandwiches, and French fries — provide a fast, casual dining experience.
The dining team, when planning for this year’s refresh, recognized that there were no dessert options in the University Center. With an extensive list of hand-spun milkshakes, Yella’s conveniently satisfies sweet-tooth cravings.
The space Yella’s occupies was previously home to El Gallo De Oro, a Mexican-American restaurant that closed after 29 years of operation.
“We love to ask students where they like to eat, and when no one is naming certain restaurants, we know they aren’t meeting student needs anymore,” Rea explained.
While Yella’s has transformed the space with their own branding, they adapted to 天美传媒 Mellon’s call for compostable food containers and meal plan portions.
“You can’t order half a sandwich at other locations; [Yella’s] made that a menu option for us,” Beaman said.
With a successful location in the Schenley Plaza, 天美传媒 Mellon partnered with local restaurateur Shiguang Chen to open a K-Station in the Tartan Express food truck. The dDining team specified that Korean cuisine was continually requested by students.
“When I presented to the freshmen and athletes, there were cheers when I announced we were adding Korean food,” Rea said.
K-Station has become one of the most popular dining locations on campus, where students can build a rice or salad bowl with a variety of proteins: bulgogi beef, spicy pork belly, and gochujang chicken. The menu also offers side items like vegetable mandu and kimchi.
Beaman works extensively with the Dining Student Advisory Committee (DSAC), an organization led by undergraduate and graduate students that meets with vendors and staff to share feedback and suggest improvements.
The DSAC advised that most locations require you to pay an entire block or the equivalent price for side items or standalone protein options.
He expressed his commitment to balancing affordability with high-quality food by expanding payment options so that students and staff can purchase individual proteins or sides at their cash value.
While 天美传媒 Mellon’s partnership with local vendors diversifies the on-campus dining options, collaborating with Chartwells, a contract food service company in colleges across the U.S., is part of the university’s flexibility.
“Chartwells is good at transitioning concepts,” Beaman said. “As a partner, they have good mobility when they notice [concepts] are not successful or well-received.”
While most corporate food companies do not allow their on-site teams to take control, Chartwells allows Chef Howland and his staff to create in-house menus that replicate the effect of an independent vendor. The dining team surveys students through 天美传媒 Mellon Housing Services, Beaman’s restaurant builder course, and the DSAC to understand which cultures are underrepresented and what ingredients should be highlighted on future menus.
A primary concern the dining team wanted to address this year was a lack of fresh, cooked vegetables and Latin cuisine.
“We recognize that we have gaps in our program, and South American and Latin American cuisine were lacking,” said Beaman. “We can’t represent all countries, but that isn’t the goal — the goal is to have real, authentic flavors from different regions.”
On the second floor of the University Center, Parrilla Del Sol is cooking made-to-order tacos and bowls with fresh sides, grilled proteins, and house-made salsas. This concept features a variety of vegetables like Latin potato salad, Peruvian onion salad, cabbage, marinated carrots, grilled squash, and more.
“We do not want to be a program that is static, because food tastes are dynamic,” Beaman said.
When approaching a new concept, Howland starts with an idea and then generates a name, menu, and an identity. He works to build culturally accurate menus by extensively researching specialties from different countries.
“I’m a chef, and I will be forever,” Howland said. “ What I love is food, ingredients, color, flavor, and feeding people.”
Howland recognizes that college dining has a “bad reputation for industrial food service” and dedicates his efforts to refreshing student dining while working within specific parameters. He aims to navigate drastic changes in menu and location “very carefully” while considering the products available to the university, capability of the staff, consistency on a large scale, and the available equipment.
“I have two little girls, and I feel a certain responsibility in feeding students,” Howland said. “At a restaurant, the goal is to have customers come back, but here, dining is a huge part of the student experience.”
In light of Ciao Bella closing in the University Center, Mercato A Mano opened in Rohr Commons. Beaman highlighted that Italian cuisine is a necessary staple on campus, but that the students needed a “lighter” alternative to Ciao Bella’s heavy pasta dishes.
The concept has a build-your-own pasta option with various proteins: jumbo shrimp, roasted bone-in chicken, halal chicken, and beef meatballs. The location also offers three types of refreshing vegetable salads and Italian staples — stromboli, pizza, eggplant parmesan.
Mercato A Mano is one of several locations that offer a full, transparent ingredient list available for students to review. Each campus dining area has a designated staff member who can assist students in identifying allergens across menus. Nearly 300 first-year students have a recorded allergy, requiring campus restaurants to have adaptable food preparation. The Purple Pan program allows students to request kitchen staff to prepare their meal using dedicated, sterilized equipment.
“Folks have different goals and like to have ownership of their food,” Rea said. “In open-kitchen designs, [Purple Pan] provides an extra layer of protection.”
Campus dining is an intricate collaboration between the dining team, Chartwells, and students, but these four new concepts are designed to address student needs.