UMD Dining Services plans to close Adele’s restaurant by graduation

Adele’s restaurant at the University of Maryland’s Stamp Student Union will likely close down at the end of the semester, Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said.

This university’s Dining Services and Stamp are planning to shutter Adele’s, which opened in 1993, after this year’s commencement ceremony, Hipple said. A consultant working with Stamp recommended a “change in concept” for the Adele’s space, Hipple said.

“We intend to continue operating a unit of food service establishment in that space,” Hipple said.

[Read more: Adele’s to close for dinner in the fall semester]

Adele’s will likely be replaced by a “fast casual” restaurant, and Dining Services is currently working with Stamp to discuss the future of the space, Hipple said. Hipple also emphasized that no one at Adele’s will lose their job during the transition, whether they are full-time or part-time employees.

“We have a big enough department that the manager there, and the cooks there and all of the people there who have full-time jobs will retain their job in one way or another somewhere in the department,” Hipple said.

In 2016, Adele’s closed its dinner service after the introduction of Anytime Dining. Because students were no longer able to use resident dining points to eat there, the restaurant could not generate enough profit to sustain dinner business hours.

Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, the director of Stamp, wrote in an email that a meeting about Adele’s will be held on Thursday. Dining Services, Stamp representatives and the consultant will attend the meeting, Hipple said.

Located on the first floor of Stamp, Adele’s currently operates for lunch Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone can schedule private events at the restaurant in the evening and on weekends.

[Read more: New vegan specials are available at all three dining halls]

Two previous restaurants existed before Adele’s opened, Hipple said. What’s Your Beef, a steak and burger restaurant opened in 1983, and UMBerto’s, an Italian restaurant that opened afterward in 1990.

Senior mechanical engineering major Chae-Rin Shin said she used to go to Adele’s frequently until the switch to Anytime Dining.

“[My friends and I] used to go there all the time our sophomore year, but now that it’s not basically free food anymore, we don’t go,” Shin said. “It’s too expensive, and it’s not good enough to pay for.”