UCSB’s new Portola brings campus dining to “next level”

Portola Dining Commons has been an institution at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) for many decades, serving as the primary campus eatery for freshmen and a kind of rite of passage. Today, the name remains but the location—and definitely the ambiance and offerings—are vastly different.

The new Portola is located in a brand-new structure that is only about 50 feet from the old one, but leagues away in terms of culinary sophistication and modernity. Where the old Portola was a staid traditional cafeteria-style dining facility dating from the 1950s/1960s that was situated in a freshman dorm tower, the new space is not only larger but free-standing and much more atmospheric with floor-to-ceiling views of the surrounding mountains.

The new Portola is in a free-standing structure, unlike the old one that was in a freshman dorm building.

Seating has also increased, from 450 to around 800, including 200 in an outdoor patio area that stretches the length of the building and overlooks a pool for that Southern California touch.

Portola is now the largest of UCSB’s four residential dining venues. It occupies a 30,000-square foot footprint on what had previously been open space.

“I looked at what we were already doing on campus with our renovated facilities and took some of those ideas to the next level,” says Jill Horst, the school’s director of dining services, about the initiative that led to the enhanced venue. Some of those ideas involved incorporating Menus of Change concepts that de-emphasize red meats in favor of seafood and vegetable proteins like nuts and legumes, she adds. “We took those ideas when we were designing what we wanted to do. I took a look at where we are what’s popular and what can do to push the envelope in the culinary area.”

The larger venue was also sorely needed as a practical matter, Horst adds.

“As we’ve added more university-owned apartments around this [area], we had to make sure we had the capacity to serve them,” she notes. Concurrent with the building of the new Portola was the construction of apartments that have added about a thousand new beds whose occupants augment Portola’s traditional freshman-heavy clientele: UCSB guarantees campus housing for freshmen, though it doesn’t require them to live on campus, but about 95 percent do, and must as a consequence purchase a meal plan.

For students living off campus, there are voluntary meal plan options, and Horst says the number of those meal plans has definitely increased with the new Portola’s debut.

On distinctive feature of the new Portola is 200 seats on an outside patio running the length of the building and overlooking a pool.

Indeed, traffic at the new Portola is up about 20 percent from what the old one was generating, and that is mostly incremental new business as the structure is a little ways—about a 10-minute bike ride, Horst estimates—from the other campus dining halls.

“Customer satisfaction is very high here, which has helped drive the business,” Horst adds. “I haven’t had a chance yet to measure my missed meal factor, but I would assume that is much lower than it was.”

The participation numbers also skew toward residential, as opposed to commuter, dining patterns as dinner counts on average exceed lunch counts, 1,200 to 800, while breakfast adds another 500 to 600 to the daily total.

Portola serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday, and brunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday.

State-of-the-art cooking equipment and open kitchens emphasize made-to-order prep and customization in the new eatery. Its stations include:

The Brick, offering made-to-order pastas, pizzas and flatbreads—including at least one vegetarian option each day—on housemade crust cooked in a Woodstone oven;

Chef's Choice, featuring daily housemade soups, comfort foods and regional favorites, including some from a rotisserie oven;

International offers freshly made sushi, different bowl selections such as ramen and pho, plus South Asian dishes from the station’s tandoori oven;

The Grill, which menus made-to-order sandwiches, sliders and burgers that can be customized with an array of condiments that include housemade dressings such as spicy ketchup;

Greens & Grains, featuring the largest salad bar on campus, incorporates not only traditional salad bar options but also more exotic items like kale, sustainable tuna and tofu and housemade dressings. Offerings also include baked potatoes with fixings, hot soups, fresh bread, made-to-order salads, wraps, deli sandwiches and paninis; and

Bakery not only offers an entirely in-house-made array of sweets like cookie and cupcakes but also fresh tortillas from its own tortilla machine. It also menus oatmeal, eight-grain cereal, various yogurts and whole and sliced fruits for breakfast. Meanwhile, hot breakfast is served on The Grill.

There is also a beverage station with a full selection of water, tea, coffee (including specialty coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos), assorted juices, milk, and soft beverages.

The old Portola remained open over the summer to serve attendees of the university’s summer conference schedule, then closed its doors in September. The new Portola then opened Sept. 22 on move-in weekend.

Currently shuttered, the old venue is slated to be repurposed as a catering and commissary kitchen, Horst says.