Jax State Masters a Servery Makeover

Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Ala., needed a new dining hall. As of 2022, its 62-year-old dining hall could barely keep up with demand. “Space was so tight students had to eat in shifts,” recalls Sodexo General Manager Scott Williams of the former 350-seat Jack Hopper Dining Hall, the only resident dining center for a campus with nearly 10,000 students.

And Jax State planners were already working on drawings for a 500-bed residence hall, along with sports stadium improvements. A new dining hall (simply named Dining Hall) became the third prong of the campus transformation plan. But time was running short.

The dining hall offers a variety of seating for more than 700, which is about double the number of seats at the previous space.

Time Crunch

In August 2022, Jax State hired foodservice consultants Rippe Associates, of Minneapolis, to design the dining hall. “Three weeks after we came on board, Jax State told us, ‘We have a site—let’s go!,’” recalls Rippe Principal Eric Goodrich. “We went from a site visit in September to construction documents in December. We would ordinarily spend at least a year to design a project this size.”

Tight deadlines across the campus’ three big projects drove the need for design speed. “We had to accelerate the design and planning phases for the dining hall to match other construction project timelines,” says Kevin Hoult, associate vice president, auxiliary and business services at Jax State. The Fall 2024 opening target date “compressed the schedule for finalizing foodservice design elements, requiring careful coordination, rapid decision-making and close collaboration among all stakeholders.”

Rippe started the foodservice design process by observing existing operations. In-person meetings allowed designers to drill down on each workstation to identify what equipment would be needed and develop detailed schematics, while close connections with Sodexo’s Williams and Jax State’s Hoult delivered quick responses.

“Scott knew the type of concepts needed, and he advocated for key pieces of equipment, such as the granite-belt conveyor pizza oven. He signed off on the specific workstations, making sure everything was correctly sized and customized to their needs,” Goodrich says. “And Dr. Hoult made the big budget decisions for the project, from approving the building site, to approving overall finishes for the building, to confirming that an underground parking garage had to be included. He helped cut through red tape.”

By the end of September, the team finalized the building size and budget. “Throughout October and November, we were flying to have construction documents completed by mid-December to get the funding and plan approved by the Board of Regents,” Goodrich says. The fact that Jax State had previously initiated—then set aside—plans for a dining hall for a different setting provided a leg up on the design process.

Close teamwork between consultants, engineers, architects and Sodexo’s campus team helped in meeting the December 2022 deadline. Construction began in Spring 2023, and the dining hall opened right on schedule in August 2024.

The hot production area supports campus catering and the servery.

Open & Friendly

Business has been brisk. “When we opened, we averaged about 1,200 meals for lunch, 900 for dinner and 250 for breakfast,” Williams says. Looking ahead at the coming school year, the numbers will continue to grow. “Currently 2,000 students are on the mandatory meal plan, and another 2,500 are on the voluntary plan,” Williams says of the all-you-care-to-eat meal facility.

The servery and dining area cover 8,700 square feet, with seating for 746 (including the private dining space). The back-of-house support areas take up about 4,500 square feet for the kitchen and storage.

A wall of north-facing windows brings campus views into the dining hall. The space’s neutral color scheme combines white tile walls, natural wood-looking floors and cabinetry fronts, and dark gray quartz countertops. Overhead, white-painted ductwork and ceiling, paired with oversized pendant lighting, add a spacious feel. Red accents—in the center island’s round support columns, various seating areas, napkin holders on each table and in the geometric-patterned tile fronting the grill station—represent Jax State’s signature color.

A freestanding salad and deli concept, the largest concept at 1,735 square feet, with its own walk-in cooler, provides the central focal point for the dining hall. Supporting platforms around the perimeter include pizza and pasta, made from scratch daily (“the students’ favorite,” Williams says); Sodexo’s signature Simple Servings allergen-free concept, a self-contained area with its own production and cold/dry storage; the grill and entree concepts, and the action cooking station and international platform, which can double as a culinary education spot during off-peak hours, or serve as an a-la-carte production area for the adjacent private dining area.

The deli comes equipped with a convection oven/proofer.

The desserts and bakery platform deserves special mention. “Jax State has a great pastry, dessert and baking program. But in the old facility, the bakery was tucked out of sight in the kitchen,” Goodrich says. “Now the entire baking operation operates in full view. You’ll see tiered quartz on the counter where they can elevate different plated desserts, and bakery cases out front. The process goes from prep and production to finishing, with workers frosting cupcakes and then putting them right into the bakery case.” The platform occupies 930 square feet and is anchored by a rotating rack oven, proofer and mixers of all sizes.

Behind the scenes, the facility’s main-level kitchen boasts a hot production area supporting campus catering and the servery. The cold production area supports the dining hall and campus retail locations. The lower level houses back-of-house operations, including receiving, offices, catering preparation and storage to support both the dining program and the nearby football stadium.

Hello, Tech

The Jax State team wanted the dining hall to be as state-of-the-art as possible. Planners specified tech-enhanced foodservice equipment with an eye toward authenticity, production speed and efficiency. These pieces included a smoker, combi ovens, a conveyor pizza oven and a downdraft induction grill, to name a few.

The school’s southern setting inspired the inclusion of authentic Alabama favorites. Accordingly, the production kitchen uses pressure fryers (brought over from the old facility) to make fried chicken, and the smoker for authentic smoked meats. The smoker marks a major upgrade, Williams says; “it burns actual wood (instead of pellets), features rotating racks, and its capacity more than doubles the smoker we used previously.”

The dining hall gets a jolt of speed and efficiency via the combi ovens that anchor the hot production line and Simple Servings. Tilt skillets on the hot production line rival the combis in flexibility, with their ability to do boiling, pan-frying, deep-frying, low-temp cooking, and more.

Over on the pizza platform, the double-stacked conveyor oven Williams advocated for boasts food quality and labor training perks. “It’s the same oven used by (Atlanta-based) Mellow Mushroom,” Williams says. “The granite conveyor belt makes for the best pizzas, and since there’s no need to turn pizzas during the baking process (as might be needed in a stone hearth oven), training employees is fast and easy.”

The pizza concept relies on a granite-enhanced conveyor pizza oven.

Tech helps maintain sightlines at the salad and deli platform. “We opted for a hoodless downdraft induction unit for the front-and-center saute station,” Rippe Project Manager Mark Miller says. “A traditional overhead hood would have ruined the clean and open look we were aiming for.”

Last but hardly least, in the dishroom, an ergonomically designed dish scrapper and sorting system that uses vertical space and multiple conveyors has upped speed and efficiency to the task of loading the flight-type warewasher.

Even More

In the event of a widespread emergency, the dining hall will serve as a gathering and meal service refuge for students and the community. For foodservice planners, this involved figuring out which areas would be critical, and how to keep them running. As a result, an emergency generator the size of a sedan was installed; it can power the kitchen, dishroom, walk-ins and two serving lines if there’s a natural disaster.

FACTS

Jacksonville State University Dining Hall
Jacksonville, Ala.

OPENED: August 2024
FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT BUDGET: $4 million
CAMPUS POPULATION: 9,955 enrolled, Fall 2024
TOTAL SIZE: 34,000 square feet
SERVERY & DINING: 8,700 square feet
SEATING: 746 seats
BACK-OF-HOUSE: 4,500 square feet
JAX STATE: Kevin Hoult, associate vice president, auxiliary and business services; Scott Williams, Sodexo general manager; Don C. Killingsworth Jr., president; Alan Medders, vice president of philanthropy; Anne Rankin, Sodexo district manager; Kaitlyn Letson, SGA president; Aubry Wooten, Sodexo senior vice president
CONSULTANT: Eric Goodrich, principal; Ryan Braudt, senior project manager; Mark Miller, project manager, Rippe Associates, Minneapolis
ARCHITECT: WBA Architecture, Jackson, Miss.
DEALER: Mobile Fixture & Equipment Co., Mobile, Ala.
WEBSITE: jsudining.sodexomyway.com

Key Equipment

THROUGHOUT
Accurex hoods
Atlanta Custom Fabricators cabinetry, work surfaces
BSI adjustable food shields
Cres Cor mobile dish dollies
T&S Brass faucets
John Boos hand sinks

BACK-OF-HOUSE:

HOT FOOD PRODUCTION
Vulcan charbroiler, grill, six-burner range/oven
True refrigerated bases
Southern Pride smoker
RATIONAL combi oven, combi oven rack, water filtration system, multifunctional tilting fry pans
Pitco fryer with filter
Irinox reach-in blast chiller
Bally walk-ins
Existing convection oven, pressure fryers, 30-gal. kettle, thawing refrigerator, reach-in refrigerator

COLD FOOD PREP
Duke Mfg. drop-in cold pan
Traulsen roll-thru refrigerator, roll-in refrigerator
Robot Coupe food processor
Hobart food processor
Metro pan storage shelving
Salvajor disposers
T&S Brass spray rinse
Existing 20-qt. mixer

WAREWASHING
Accurex condensate hood
Hobart flight-type dishmachine
Aerowerks soiled dish table with bussing conveyor
Salvajor disposer

SERVERY:

SALAD, DELI & SOUPS
Vollrath downdraft vent system,
Scotsman ice machine
Traulsen undercounter refrigerator
Silver King milk dispenser
APW Wyott conveyor toaster
Federal bakery display case
Baxter mini rack oven with proofer
Metro mobile proofing cabinet
Dutchess dough divider
Vollrath induction range
Bally walk-in cooler, freezer
Existing mixers, mobile ingredient bins, waffle station, coffee brewer

ENTREE
Duke Mfg. hot/cold pans
Alto-Shaam carving stations
Victory pass-thru refrigerator
Traulsen reach-in freezer

GRILL
BSI heated display shelves
Vulcan grill, charbroiler
Traulsen refrigerated bases, refrigerators
Pitco fryers
Victory pass-thru freezer induction range, soup wells
Duke Mfg. drop-in food wells
Alto-Shaam undercounter warming cabinet
Globe panini grills
TurboChef ventless conveyor oven
Bally walk-in refrigerator
Nu-Vu convection oven with proofing cabinet

SIMPLE SERVINGS
Traulsen reach-in freezer, undercounter refrigerators, cold prep table
RATIONAL combi oven
Vulcan charbroiler, four-burner range, grill, refrigerated base
Duke Mfg. hot/cold drop-in pans
Alto-Shaam undercounter warming cabinet
Existing rotisserie oven

PIZZA & PASTA
Hot Rocks conveyor pizza oven
Traulsen cold prep table, roll-in refrigerators
Pitco pasta cooker
Alto-Shaam mobile warming cabinet
Duke Mfg. four-well hot/cold pan
BSI heated display shelf, protector shelf system
Existing dough press

ACTION COOKING & INTERNATIONAL
Vulcan six-burner hot top, grill
Duke Mfg. drop-in hot/cold wells
Victory pass-thru refrigerator
Panasonic rice cookers
BSI heated display shelf
Bally walk-in refrigerator

DESSERT & BAKERY
Taylor soft serve machine
Server hot topping dispenser
Duke Mfg. hot/cold pans

T&S Brass is pleased to sponsor FER’s Kitchen Design feature. To learn more, visit tsbrass.com.