New menu in 1873 restaurant

The 1873 Café & Sports Grill has adopted the philosophy of “fresh, fast and easy” with recent changes to its menu.

With the new menu, the biggest change regarding the food would be the freshness, Michael Dahl, director of operations of TCU Dining Services, said.

Executive Chef Charlie Guajardo said the old menu was full of frozen food but that nearly all the items on the new menu are made fresh. The only items on the new menu that would still be frozen are french fries and ice cream, he said.

Dahl said the new items included hand-breaded chicken, half-pound hamburgers and specialty sandwiches, as well as smoked meats and fresh-cut, fried potato chips.

Salads will also change this semester, he said. Customers would now choose the fresh ingredients they want and then watch an employee build and toss the salad in front of them.

New additions to the dessert menu included strawberry and chocolate milkshakes and brownie a la mode, he said.

Dahl said student favorites are still featured on the new menu, such as the Xango, a fried cheesecake, and the ever-popular curly fries.

Rachel Phillips, a freshman film-television-digital media major, said she really liked the new focus on freshness and quality.

“You could really tell it was restaurant quality,” she said.

A review of the menu showed prices from before and after the changes are similar with the exception of the salads, which are now $7.99 as opposed to $2.99.

Guajardo also said there would be a daily special that would cost more.

With the old menu the kitchen area was not suited for preparing food quickly, but TCU Dining Services decided to adjust so students could get their food faster, Dahl said. To further increase efficiency, students can now place their orders in two places.

Guajardo said the frozen food also made preparing orders more time-consuming, and the new menu’s focus on fresh food will make orders easier to prepare quickly.

Guajardo, who co-wrote the recipes for the new menu with Catering and Sous-Chef Sergio Salinas, said he hoped the new focus on fresh food would give 1873 a more home-style feel.

And, in order to help, he said 1873 had also decided to add chocolate and strawberry-flavored Blue Bell ice cream.

Dahl said he hoped the new changes would give 1873 a more enjoyable feel where students, faculty, family and alumni could go eat. Other changes to 1873 include new uniforms for employees and menu billboards above the order counter that will replace the old menus.

There also will be larger paper cups available and napkins on the tables, a change from students having to walk to the napkin dispenser, Dahl said. Changes were also part of an effort to make 1873 completely different from Market Square, and to give the restaurant a unique identity.