Restaurants on and off the Square are anxiously preparing their kitchens and staff for the influx of tourists as the city of Oxford hosts more than 60,000 people this weekend for the 21st-annual Double Decker festival.
South Depot is a casual southwest restaurant on the Oxford Square that serves made to order burritos and similar cuisine. Photo by: Evan Turner
New restaurants in Oxford, like Greenline, located next to South Depot, have been holding extensive meetings and over-prepping their kitchen in order to properly prepare for the weekend. Greenline has a slight advantage over other new restaurants, however, because the salad bar is owned by the owner of South Depot. According to Scott Sutter, manager of Greenline, the restaurant is better prepared for its first Double Decker weekend because of this advantage.
Sutter said Greenline is over-stocked with every item to ensure the restaurant is prepared. He also said South Depot will be the primary choice of Double Decker participants out of the two restaurants.
“If it gets busy over here, then it gets busy over here, but mostly our focus is on South Depot,” Sutter said.
Bacchus On The Square, a new cajun seafood and steakhouse, will not be making any special accommodations for the Double Decker festival. According to Wylie Coleman, manager of Bacchus, the restaurant is planning to treat this weekend the same as they would a football weekend.
“We are not going to change anything from football season. We’re expecting the same crowd as football season,” Coleman said. “We have added extra inventory, but we don’t see the need to hire any extra employees.”
When asked what specific preparations the restaurant is making for Double Decker, Coleman said, “We have a selected menu that we are going to do. Everything is going to be traditional Bacchus.”
Greenline is a restaurant on the Square serving a range of signature and customizable salads as well as other fresh options. Photo by: Evan Turner
According to Coleman, however, Bacchus investors strategically planned to open their new business venture, Rowdy Rebs, during the week of Double Decker.
New restaurants are not the only businesses affected by the massive influx of tourists. Management at veteran restaurant Old Venice hired five new employees last week in order to account for the increased influx of customers.
Employee Colby Gaddis said the restaurant’s management informed its workers of the shifts they would be working two weeks in advance to avoid any scheduling problems.
“It’s a lot more work, but it’s a lot more money,” Gaddis said.
Restaurant chefs are also anxiously awaiting the influx of customers. Chef Vishwesh Bhatt of Snackbar said he has learned to keep his food simple on these busy weekends each year. According to Bhatt, the management at Snackbar’s goal is to do their absolute best to ensure guests enjoy themselves.
“It is a matter of personal pride for [the staff] and all of us at the restaurant group that we serve very good food and it doesn’t matter if we are serving 50 or 500,” Bhatt said.
Bhatt said his staff is always ready, regardless of how busy the weekend might get.
“We look forward to showing them what a wonderful place Oxford is and hope that they’ll like Snackbar enough to become regulars,” Bhatt said. “We also look forward to having folks who have never been to Oxford and Snackbar walking through our doors.”
Snackbar will also use the Big Bad Breakfast dining room to accommodate as many guests as possible.
“After all, they are the ones that have made us what we are,” Bhatt said of the customers.
Boneheads is a contemporary counter-serve chain with a menu of grilled seafood, piri-piri chicken, burgers, etc. Photo by: Aleea Burge
Boneheads, located on Jackson Avenue, will have a booth at the festival to ensure they get a shot at the crowds.
Employee Annie Dyer said, because Boneheads is not located on the Square, it often gets overlooked, so they chose to have a booth this year.
“The booth is a great way to let not only local Oxford natives, but college students as well, know that there are great places to eat off the Square,” she said.
Double Decker will run Friday and Saturday, and all participating food vendors will be located in a Circle around the Courthouse.
