Refectory Café Serves Up Local, Organic Fare

Thursday, January 19th, 2006
By Leslie Griffith
The Chronicle

"Hot, Healthy, and Homemade" boast the signs promoting the newest addition to Duke's dining options. The Refectory, which serves up environment-friendly "green" dining options, opened its doors Tuesday.

The spacious café, located in the Divinity School, seats 250 people and serves breakfast and lunch daily. As a green dining establishment, its kitchen uses locally grown or certified organic ingredients whenever possible, owner Laura Hall said. Tabletop signs promote healthy eating, living wages and environmental sustainability.

Several patrons visited the Refectory in its first few days open to sample the food or show enthusiasm for the café's mission. Senior Alexis Vaughan said she believes it is important to support local farmers. "Plus, it's better than the Great Hall," she added.

Others praised the food quality and reasonable prices. "There's a great selection, and the student lunch special is a pretty good deal," said Divinity School student Ashley Pickerel.

For now, the Refectory offers soup, sandwiches and a hot entree of the day, as well as several baked goods. The Tuesday menu featured roasted organic chicken and dumplings from nearby Fickle Creek Farm.

Hall said she plans on expanding the menu soon to include gourmet pizzas, speciality coffees, and meats grilled outdoors on the terrace.

Chef Dani Black, who has worked both on farms and in restaurants, said while she is happy that the café tries to use as much locally-grown and organic food as possible, she wishes it could use more certified organic foods.

"Certified organic foods are more expensive, and people are not ready to pay the price," Black said.

Locally-produced foods are better priced and thus more feasible to use frequently, she added.

Hall first conceived of the Refectory when the Divinity School approached her about starting a green café on its premises, she said. She and her colleagues worked to make not only the cuisine but the entire atmosphere of the café green and community-friendly.

The tables, first used in 1926, were recycled from the University's Oak Room. Paintings of the Duke Chapel and East Campus that Hall found two years ago at an art auction adorn the walls. The china was used in Duke dining halls in the 1940s.

"We've had alumni here who remember eating off this china," Hall said.

So far the customers have been mostly alumni or graduate students from the Divinity School and Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Hall said. She noted, however, that undergraduates are now showing up more frequently. "The focus is very much on local products and community," Hall said. "We want to get people to visit, eat and relax. It's better for the digestion."

As part of this philosophy, the staff encourages people to stay and eat in the café. Only 5 percent of patrons ask for their food to go, Hall said.

Sophomore Megan Moskop, vice president of the Duke Environmental Alliance, said she hopes the Refectory is a sign of more green dining options to come. "I'm really excited about where Duke is going," she said.