Engineering and textiles students will have a new dining option on Centennial Campus by the end of the month: the Innovation Café.

The new venue will feature a Chick-fil-A and rotating items that include a salad bar, deli, pasta, stir-fry and more, according to University Dining. The seating capacity for the venue is 285.

Xiaoming Feng, an executive consulting engineer at ABB Inc., chose the name in a contest held throughout Centennial Campus, according to University Dining.

According to Randy Lait, Director of Dining Services, the café will serve to temporarily provide food for students on Centennial Campus while a more extravagant facility is being constructed.

“University Dining has been planning a permanent food service facility to be built … as part of the proposed Centennial Campus student housing facility,” Lait said. “While this facility is designed and constructed, we needed to fill the gap in food service availability by constructing the Innovation Café.”

Lait said more dining options are necessary because of the growth of Centennial Campus.

“With the continued growth of Centennial Campus in undergraduate students, faculty, staff and corporate partners, the campus needs more food service available,” Lait said.

For Chris Morrow, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, the café will add convenience and variety to his daily ritual.

“I would greatly appreciate having more meal options on Centennial Campus and guarantee the café will be a hot spot for social activity,” Morrow said. “We engineers like to eat just as much as the business and education majors”

Morrow said that currently his meals must be rushed so he has ample time to catch a bus to Centennial Campus.

“If there were a place to get a complete breakfast or lunch, I would catch an earlier bus and just grab a meal there before class,” Morrow said.

Lait said the scope of the project was just over $1.6 million and the café will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The location of the café — next to the BTEC building just north of the Engineering Buildings — was selected because of its convenience, according to Lait.

“This location did not conflict with construction already planned for the area around the Oval and had close access to power, water, and sewer infrastructure,” Lait said.

Morrow said that while the location of the café will be convenient for him and his engineering counterparts, it will most likely not be ideal for other people on Centennial Campus.

“The location is much farther from the textile buildings, which disadvantages those students,” Morrow said.

However, Morrow said that just having a dining venue on Centennial Campus is something he is excited about.

“Any location on Centennial Campus is more convenient than traveling back to main campus,” Morrow said.

Sudeep Sunthankar, a senior in biomedical engineering, said while he thinks this project demonstrates the desire to link Centennial to Main Campus, there is still a lot of work to be done.

“The only students going to that side of campus [are] engineers and textiles students. The interaction is pretty limited,” Sunthankar said.

Morrow said the new Innovation Café will help make Centennial Campus feel more like Main Campus.

“Establishing the Innovation Café will be a major step in giving Centennial Campus the same home-like feeling as Main Campus,” Morrow said.

Sunthankar said he is excited for the variety the new dining venue will bring.

“It will definitely be nice to have another place besides Port City Java to go to,” Sunthankar said.

Morrow said that he thinks the new dining facility will be received well on Centennial Campus.

“I believe I can speak for the majority of engineering students and say we would love to have the opportunity to get a spicy chicken sandwich and waffle fries for lunch on Centennial Campus,” Morrow said.