Kent Dining Services transformed the Student Center lower level retail space with a new on-campus restaurant, The Patio.

The Patio provides the Kent community with on-campus food favorites such as the Fork in the Road pulled pork sandwich and mac and cheese. The restaurant offers a build your own sandwich or combo meal starting at five dollars, gourmet burgers and chicken wings.

The Patio replaced Quaker Steak & Lube this fall semester in the lower level of Kent’s Student Center. The reason for the change is still unknown. The Patio representatives declined to respond.

The newly renovated restaurant provides more than 20 large flat screen TVs, a green area with interactive games and opportunities to enhance student programming.

Abygail Bowman, a senior aeronautics major and student manager, worked at the lower level facility for four years. Bowman now helps out The Patio Aramark staff with fulfilling mandatory duties as well as assisting the restaurant with operations management. 

Bowman said the most popular dish at The Patio is the grilled cheese, though her personal favorite is the Mac & Cheese burger. The new dining option aims to increase customer popularity for its initial year.

The majority of the menu items are under $10. Bowman said The Patio tries to give students more food options for lower prices opposed to Quaker.

“At Quaker you were paying for the Quaker name as well as the price for food. We try to even that out and provide more options.”

The Patio supports on-campus organizations and allows them to book its stage for events. The Center for Student Involvement for Game Night and Kent’s Best Apartments for Karaoke Nights are hosting events at The Patio throughout the semester. The Karaoke Nights have themes such as Spooky Karaoke, Luau Karaoke and Battle of the Bands Karaoke.

Kent State alumna Jordan Jarc remembers the choice to wait for Quaker’s wings instead of being on time to her final. She first started taking courses here at Kent in 2014 and became a heavy Quaker eater.

Jarc, comfortable with the Quaker environment, believes the decor in The Patio is plain and compared it to a bed and breakfast scene.

“The decor is plain here, Quaker was more homey,” Jarc said. “It had the plaques and the lighting was more dark and chill. Quaker was that hangout place where me and my friends would come after class, it was our place to decompress.”

Franchesca Cook, a senior special education major, feels the over-hyped Patio left excited students with disappointment.

Cook doesn’t find the food prices to be much different than Quaker’s prices. She said she would rather make her salads at home than to order them from The Patio.

“There’s salads and stuff but it’s overpriced,” Cook said. “I don’t see a difference than Quaker. It’s not as exciting as it used to be. No one is like ‘let’s go to The Patio.’”

Contact Celetre Jones at [email protected].