Burgers topping 600 calories and French fries trailing just behind at 580 calories sell by the pound everyday in Tavern, despite lower-calorie salad options.
Tavern has high sales on high calories
A hamburger patty with two bacon slices and an ounce of cheese totals 640 calories and has 1,230 milligrams of sodium, according to Bon Appétit’s Nutritional Analysis website. Tavern sells 240 beef burgers every day, according to Resident District Manager for Bon Appétit Derek Nottingham.
“The Tavern for the most part is not really a healthy meal destination, the top sellers are hamburgers, fried chicken tenders, pizza and fries,” Nottingham said in an email.
Beef burgers trail behind the 32 pounds of chicken tenders and 450 pounds of fries sold by Bon Appétit’s Tavern each day.
Chicken tenders are 300 calories for six pieces and have 75 milligrams of sodium, while a six ounce serving of french fries has 580 calories, 31 grams of fat and 340 milligrams of sodium.
However, even the vegetarian alternatives offered by Tavern carry over 300 calories per burger.
About 80 vegetarian black bean burgers are sold every day in Tavern, said Nottingham. A vegetarian burger has 330 calories, but also 3.5 grams of fat per serving, according to Bon Appétit’s Nutritional Analysis.
Salad sales pale in comparison to tenders
Salads are also available at Tavern but are generally passed over by students.
“We do have prepared salads as alternatives, but we’ll sell over 300 lbs of chicken tenders before we’ll sell a dozen salads,” Nottingham said in an email.
Tavern sells 120 portable to-go salads every day, according to Nottingham. Two cups of Bon Appétit greens have 20 calories and Caesar dressing has 80 calories.
More nutrition information to come
However, Bon Appétit has already made health-conscious decisions in its food preparation and plans to expand the amount of nutritional information available to customers in the future.
Zero trans fat canola clear oil is used for deep fryers, extra virgin olive oil for food preparation and smart balance butter for pizzas, said Nottingham in an email.
“Following the 2013 summer break we intend to begin incorporating BAMCO’s [Bon Appétit Management Company] nutritional information system in select locations and then phase it across campus as appropriate,” Nottingham said.
Staff Writer Samantha Hogan contributed to this report.
jsmith@theeagleonline.com
