An MSU culinary services employee serves hard scooped ice cream to a customer in the Gallery dining hall on Feb. 8, 2025. The Gallery has had many recent upgrades, including the new ice cream station and a build-your-own sandwich bar.
An unusually long line surrounds the Bliss dessert station at The Gallery due to their recent addition of hard scoop ice cream. Starting this weekend, the dining hall, located in Snyder Phillips, will expand their menu further to include a waffle bar and omelet bar. These new stations are among other upgrades being made to The Gallery as well as The Vista at Shaw Hall.
The hard scoop ice cream joined The Gallery’s dessert options on Feb. 3. Flavors switch out regularly and sorbet now gives students a dairy-free option. Soft serve ice cream is still available. An ice cream topping station was also added at The Vista at Shaw this week next to the soft serve machine.
Packaging sophomore Preston White, who works at the new station, said the hard scoop ice cream secures The Gallery's spot as the top dining hall.
While the ice cream station has run smoothly since its opening, complex dining manager of River Trail Neighborhood dining Susie Burke said it may be temporarily closed at times if they don't have a scooper to work it.
Now that the ice cream has been open for a week, a new dining experience will open this weekend.
On Saturday, Feb. 15, the made-to-order omelet station will open at The Gallery where you can customize your own omelet with a variety of protein and vegetable ingredients, as well as an option to have your omelet made with just egg whites. This station will be open on Saturdays for breakfast and lunch.
On Sunday, Feb. 16, the waffle bar takes over, where you can get house-made waffles and add a variety of toppings at the topping bar which has different syrups, whipped cream and more.
Additionally, this school year, the sandwich station at The Gallery has gotten back to pre-COVID-19 hours, being open daily for lunch and dinner. Elementary education third-year Graciela Saborio works the station.
"There’s lots of different meats and cheeses and vegetables," Saborio said. "And also it's just on demand, so you get to talk to someone and make it and it's sort of like Subway."
Saborio, a vegetarian, was impressed by the variety of options at the station, including barbecue jackfruit and vegan cheese.
A deli also opened at The Vista last week. The station is starting with limited options but will have a full list of ingredients in the coming weeks after it has settled in. An option to have your sandwich heated on the grill as opposed to the conveyor oven is unique to The Vista location.
The dining halls also host a variety of events. The Gallery is hosting a Valentine’s Day event Wednesday Feb. 12, where students can decorate their own cookies and cupcakes while listening to live music. The dining hall staff also have plans for a finals week dinner. They will send out a survey and curate a menu of students' favorite dishes, Burke said.
"We just want to offer the best, a lot of options for our students, because they work hard (and) study hard," Chef Dien Ly said.
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