Aladdin Campus Dining reopens Pete’s Retreat
Café now offering beloved locally brewed Memoria coffee beverages”
Aladdin Campus Dining, a specialist in higher education culinary management services, is excited to reopen Pete’s Retreat, a trending café offering a variety of must-have favorite menu items including locally loved Memoria Roasters coffee beverages now served on the Northeastern Junior College campus.
A grand reopening celebration to debut the newly renovated space was held on Thursday, Jan. 18, with complementary samples, gifts, a Logan County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and more.
“We started out not really knowing what we were going to do,” Aladdin Campus Dining Food Service Director Staci Marx said, but she and her crew couldn’t be more pleased with the results. “We’re excited.”
She also gave a special thank you to all of the staff. “They have come together, they have stressed out with me and they have come to a place where this is great. I’m excited, thank you guys,” Marx said.
Lisa Lefevre, NJC’S Vice President of Administrative Services, said that the idea for the project came from students who approached student services to ask for new furniture in Pete’s Retreat. She explained that the college’s contract with Aladdin allows for funds to improve on-campus dining facilities and with the students’ requests in mind, Aladdin presented a proposal to NJC officials to reinvigorate the space and make it a nice place for students to be.
The renovation included not only updating the space with new seating but menu changes as well, including a new coffee provider. Until the grand reopening of Pete’s, Memoria Roasters, a beloved brand in the Sterling community, could only be purchased by the bag. Now, there’s a place to get a warm cup of coffee already made. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be the first retail dining venue in Sterling to offer freshly brewed cups of hand-crafted Memoria Roasters coffee beverages, produced locally with zero preservatives and artificial flavorings! Memoria Roasters is the perfect com
panion to Aladdin’s menu items, prepared fresh with local ingredients,” Marx said.
Students and the community off-campus can visit Pete’s Retreat for breakfast, lunch and dinner where they will enjoy breakfast sandwiches and burritos, flatbread pizza, quesadillas, wings, and mac and cheese bites — along with a wide variety of Memoria Roasters hot, iced and frozen coffee beverages. Dine-in or takeout is available, including Memoria Roasters bagged coffee. Students who are on the school’s meal plan can use their flex points towards Pete’s Retreats purchases.
With new seating fitting a capacity of 50, Pete’s Retreat also offers the perfect “retreat” experience for students to study, dine, and even socialize with various games including ping pong and foosball, or they can even try their luck on the newly re-lined pool table. Several flat-screen TV monitors and a new sound system also allow gamers to connect their gaming stations.
For those wanting to enjoy a meal outside when the weather is nice, you can head just outside Pete’s Retreat to the newly renovated courtyard, Penny’s Plaza, which features plenty of seating for eating and games, as well as propane heaters to keep visitors warm on chilly days.
“We’re thankful to our dining partner Aladdin Campus Dining, for supporting local and veteran owned businesses like Memoria, and to create a space where the community on and off campus can enjoy freshly brewed beverages and delicious food, “said Northeastern Junior College President Mike White.
Located in the Hays Student Center on campus and available to the public, Pete’s Retreat is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The café’s Barista Team Members, including Jodi Dutton, Sara Dutton, Anna Kauffman and Robbie Lefevre, are happy to serve you!
“We’re excited to be hosting things, so everybody tell your friends and bring everybody by. If you want to have an event here we’d love to host it,” Marx said.