After a farewell to Parkland’s beloved Betsy’s Bistro on July 1, 2024, with a couple of months of various food trucks filling in since then, a brand new cafeteria – called ETC (Eats, Treats, & Catering) – had its grand opening today, Sept. 3.
ETC is expected to consist of many of the same food items with the same layout as Betsy’s Bistro. “It looks like it will be much of the same stuff, with your typical grilled items like burgers and pizza,” says Michael Trame, the head of the food department at Parkland. Food items at ETC will also include – but are not limited to – sandwiches, pasta, salads and tacos.
Even though it will offer many of the same items as Betsy’s Bistro did, ETC will aim to improve the quality of its food items. “We’re trying to do more fresher stuff coming locally from smaller businesses instead of pre-packaged foods,” says Christine Herbert, the head of the ETC department. “We’re having local vendors provide some of the desserts; for example, we’re having some fresh donuts come in on a daily basis.”
Herbert also mentioned how she hopes this approach to fresher food items will set ETC apart from Betsy’s Bistro and other generic campus cafeterias. “Pre-packaged items – like pop-tarts – you can find at pretty much any store or gas station. We want our items to be especially unique by taking a fresher approach.” Additionally, Herbert adds that they aim to keep the food cost down as much as possible.
According to their website’s daily menu, ETC will serve Al pastor tacos, elotes and churros with dipping sauce on its first day of business. For the rest of the week, they will serve pasta with homemade sauce, jambalayas, and Italian beef sandwiches. For meal updates, you can find ETC’s menu at www.etccu.com, which will be updated weekly.
