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New franchises offer dining variety

Jay Konstantaras Staff Writer

If you build it, they will come.

Two national fast food vendors, Chick-Fil-A and Stone Willy's Pizza, became the latest additions to Appalachian State University's Food Services earlier this week.

Chick-Fil-A, which serves chicken sandwiches and other chicken products, opened for business Tuesday in the east side of Welborn Cafeteria. Stone Willy's Pizza, a pizza vendor serving mostly colleges and universities, opened Saturday in the Food Court.

Director of Food Services Ron Dubberly said the process of bringing both restaurants to campus took a lot longer than expected. "We approached several franchises several years ago, but we kept hitting road blocks," he said.

Fast food chains with existing franchises in the area were prohibited from opening restaurants on campus, making the search for new vendors difficult, Dubberly said.

"The existing franchises already had the rights to the area," Dubberly said. "Chick-Fil-A didn't."

Stone Willy's was chosen by Food Services after putting on a convincing presentation at the National Association of Colleges and Universities Food Services' annual show.

"They market heavily toward colleges," Dubberly said. "They have (franchises) at Auburn (University), North Carolina State (University) and Georgia Southern (University), just to name a few."

Fryers, ovens, heaters, and other equipment purchased for Chick-Fil-A and Stone Willy's Pizza cost about $65,000 and $12,000, respectively. The university also pays for the cost of training employees under licensing agreements with each company.

"We got a really good deal with Stone Willy's," Dubberly said. "We were able to get $30,000 worth of equipment for only $12,000."

Chick-Fil-A currently employs about 15 students and will expand to between 20 and 30 students.

Stone Willy's currently employs about 10 students and will expand to between 30 and 40 employees, Dubberly said.

Dubberly said both restaurants are still working out some of the kinks in their operations. "We've been having some problems with some of the pizza ovens, but we hope to have that corrected soon."

Students were happy to see the arrival of both restaurants. "It's about time," said Jason Anton, a junior from Wilkesboro. "They've been talking about this for years. It's about time it actually came through."

Glenda Martin, a sophomore from Matthews, was pleased with the quality of the pizza served at Stone Willy's. "It's a lot better than the Pizzeria ever was," she said.