Cesar Chavez Student Center

What is the West Plaza?
Why Soul Food?
Who is involved?
How is the Student Center reaching out to inform the public of the opportunity?
What happened with the Japanese/Thai/Filipino cuisine restaurant project?
How do I give my input regarding this new service?

What is the West Plaza?
West Plaza is a newly renovated area of the Cesar Chavez Student Center located on the West side of the building, facing Burk Hall. It consists of three quick service kiosk locations: Carmelina La Petite, Jessie's Hot House (our newest vendor) and Bark N Bun.

Why Soul Food?
In 1998 the Student Center Governing Board wanted to expand the diversity of the food options offered to students and made the decision to commit to providing Soul Food service on SFSU campus. Since the Governing Board did not want to displace an existing service a lengthy process of determining a location, designing the space and planning the construction was undertaken.

Who is involved?
This is a Student Center Governing Board project, and as such it is administered by the Student Center business office. The Student Center leases its commercial space through a formal RFP process and the Governing Board makes the ultimate decision as to which operator is granted a contract with the organization.

How is the Student Center reaching out to inform the public of the opportunity?
We advertised the business opportunity in 20 local publications including the SF Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, San Mateo Times, Contra Costa Times, Unity First, SF Weekly, East Bay Express, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Bay View Weekly, The Globe, The Post Group, Sun Reporter, African-American Newswire, Black Culinarian Alliance, Craigslist, and BizBen.com. Also we have contacted over 85 local soul food restaurants. In addition we have mailed the information to over 100 Black local businesses, places of worship, and have had presence at the Black Expo 2007.

We are working with a great team of contacts here on campus to encourage the campus community to get involved in spreading the word regarding this great opportunity.

Finally, we continue to outreach to student organizations, as well as fraternities and sororities in our attempt to spread the word amongst our students about the new service coming to the Center.

What happened with the Japanese/Thai/Filipino cuisine restaurant project?
In 2003, The Student Center Governing Board made another commitment, to provide a service of either Japanese, Thai or Filipino cuisine. After surveying the campus community, those three cuisine choices overwhelmingly won over all others, and the Board decided to include all three as possibilities for which to accept proposals once the location for the service was designated. For a period of time, the new West Plaza location was to be the location for that service, but as it is the only restaurant space currently available in the Student Center, the Governing Board made the decision to complete a project it committed to earlier first.

How do I give my input regarding this new service?
You are encouraged to contact us with any questions, input, or information you feel may be useful for us as we go through this exciting process. Please return to this link often for updates.