For the casual passerby, the UO’s new catering and central kitchen might be easy to miss since its exterior was designed to blend into its east campus neighborhood surroundings. But there’s no mistaking the Duck cookies made inside.

An open house from 4-6 p.m. Monday, May 23, will be an opportunity to see that first-hand and for the campus community and the east campus neighborhood to tour the new kitchen, watch chef demonstrations and talk with catering experts. The building is at 1793 Columbia St.

“We are incredibly proud of the high-quality, exceptional food our chefs create, often with local and sustainable ingredients,” said Tom Driscoll, director of dining services and associate director of housing. “In this new high-tech kitchen, we can provide campus and the Eugene community with even more options that will delight and inspire.” 

The LEED Gold building features an advanced energy threshold design as well as a state-of-the-art kitchen and a full bakery. It will enable the catering and central kitchen teams to continue to bring award-winning food to campus dining venues and to catered events for the UO and Eugene communities. 

The building is also home to the new University Housing Woodshop. University Housing has a long history of employing skilled craftspeople to create custom wood pieces to meet student needs in the residence halls. The woodshop and kitchen are completely separate. 

“You wouldn’t normally put these two things together, but they had similar design needs and both benefited from the location of the building. This is a great story of partnering that allowed for cost sharing and collaboration,” Driscoll said. 

The woodshop will also be open to the public at the open house event. 

—By Lea Adamovic, University Communications intern