Trinity staff is working to complete the installation of new dining options. The On the Fly food truck, Tiger Press juice bar, Starbucks, Batch 101 teaching kitchen and the Daily Grind are all scheduled to open in the coming weeks.

The Daily Grind and Batch 101, both located in Mabee Dining Hall, are now in the final stage of permitting with the city.

“We hope to get started next week serving Summer Moon Coffee and some cooking demonstrations hopefully as early as the 25th or 26th,” Charles Robles, food service director, wrote in an email.

Paul Wright, director of business operations, explained some of the specifics of the delays with these two dining options.

“Everything has passed inspection for Batch 101, and so there’s a couple loose ends to tie up, and we’ll be good to go there,” Wright said. “The Daily Grind had equipment delays and inspections.”

Both the food truck and the juice cart are also in the final stages of preparation.

“The Tiger Press truck is in final assembly in Colorado and will hopefully be arriving on campus next week, and the food truck will be on campus shortly after that,” Robles wrote.

Wright believes that the food truck and juice cart will both be utilized in interesting ways.

“I imagine — with this being a new venture for us — that it will be interesting to see what opportunities come up, like if a student group wants to reserve it for an event, we can try that and just move it around to different parts of campus and see how it develops,” Wright said.

Bruce Bravo, senior director of Conferences and Auxiliary Services, doesn’t know of any other schools right now that have incorporated food truck concepts.

“I’m sure they’re out there, I just don’t know of any institution that currently has this model,” Bravo said.

Bravo explained that the delays that have occurred with these dining options are normal and often not in anyone’s control.

“We understand the delays. If you’ve been involved in this like I have for 30 years, nothing ever happens as fast as you think it’s going to happen, from a combination of equipment failure, equipment not being delivered, to inspections and permitting. So much is out of our control and even out of the contractor’s control,” Bravo said.

Robles wants to remind everyone that these dining projects have only been in progress since late June and early July.

“It may feel like it’s been a long time coming, but the construction team and architect have made tremendous strides in 12 weeks while working around summer conferences and the start of the new school year,” Robles wrote. “It takes a lot of planning and preparation for a project of this size and construction does slow down while working around the busy schedules of the Trinity food operations supports year round, which has made the construction take a little longer than if it was just an unoccupied building project.”

The Starbucks location in Coates Library is still on track to open in mid-October.