Rehab Facility Opens Restaurant for Patient Dining

Sous Chef Kevin Gilmore plates a dish at OSU Med Ctr.’s new patient “restaurant,” Ernie’s Cafe.

Patients of Ohio State University Medical Center's rehabilitation services in Dodd Hall now have dinner communally in a sit-down restaurant atmosphere rather than alone in their rooms from trays, reports the Lantern, OSU's campus newspaper. After a trial run during Thanksgiving, Dodd Hall, the facility for patients undergoing rehabilitation where stays of three or more weeks is common, opened Ernie's Cafe at the end of November.

It serves dinner from 4:30 to 6:30 each day from a restaurant-like menu that includes a daily chef's special as well as standards like cheeseburgers, pasta alfredo and meatloaf. Lunch service is expected to debut in January.

Previously, patients had to order their meals the day before. Their trays were then assembled in a central kitchen and rethermed on the units. Now, Ernie's operates its own kitchen.