Starting this winter, Il Tramezzino will replace the current Espresso Roma Cafe at the UCLA Anderson School of Management after the school decided not to continue the cafe’s lease.
The site of Roma Cafe was built with the Anderson School in 1996, and shortly after the graduate school’s opening, was occupied by the restaurant, said Jason Estes, Espresso Roma Cafe manager.
The current cafe is expected to be closed in mid-November, with construction occurring during winter break. The new cafe is scheduled to open for winter.
Il Tramezzino is an Italian restaurant with three other sites open around Los Angeles.
Roma Cafe’s original 10-year lease expired a few years ago, and after a few short-term renewals, the restaurant management reapplied for another lease this summer, along with three other restaurants. Each of their applications were rejected, Estes said.
The Anderson School conducted a broad survey of students, asking what types of restaurants the students wanted to have based on menu options, price range and portion sizes, said Hilu Bloch, senior associate dean of Anderson.
After Cafe Roma and three other competing restaurants sent in their bids, Il Tramezzino had a high rating based on the student criteria, Bloch said.
Although the menus of the two cafes are similar, both consisting of salads and sandwiches, the regular Il Tramezzino restaurants have higher prices than Cafe Roma.
However, because of differences between Il Tramezzino’s sit-down restaurants and the over-the-counter cafe that will be run at Anderson, some decrease in prices is expected, Bloch said.
Besides the opening of a new restaurant, construction on the space will include remodeling the seating space and relocating the authentic trading post from the New York Stock Exchange to an exhibit at the Rosenfeld Library. The trading post, which dates back to the 1930s, will be exhibited along with an explanation of its history, Bloch said.
The extent of the remodeling has not yet been finalized, but the new restaurant will attempt to open as close to the beginning of the new quarter as possible, Bloch said.
A comprehensive announcement to the students and faculty will be sent out shortly after final negotiations with Il Tramezzino are completed.
“I wish the new restaurant luck, but I think that such a large-scale change being accomplished over four weeks in the winter is a bit ambitious,” Estes said.
While he normally hires staff at the end of summer, Estes said he has not done so this year because of Cafe Roma’s impending departure. Because of the decrease in staff, the restaurant now has a reduced menu as well as shortened hours for the fall. Instead of being open until 9 p.m. on most days, the restaurant will now close at 5 p.m.
This will most affect students enrolled in the Fully Employed MBA program at the Anderson School, as they are most often the late patrons of the cafe, and comprise about half of its customers, Estes said.
While the students and faculty of the Anderson School were informed of the impending change by an e-mail in early September, no other details were given, Estes said.
He said this has caused communication problems in the community, as students have been asking Estes about why the restaurant is leaving and also expressing concern over the restaurant’s shorter hours.
“I have to retell the story of how we lost our bid a hundred times a day, even though that’s not my job. When I tried to post a sign in the restaurant explaining, I was asked by the administration to take it down,” Estes said.
Estes is currently working to place staff members in other locations. However, many employees have worked at Cafe Roma for as long as the 13 years since its opening, and their wages are their only source of income.
“One of our staff members who has worked here for nine years, she has a son who was going to start Occidental College this year, but can’t anymore due to her decreased income,” Estes said.
Anderson School representatives have approached UCLA Dining, which agreed to consider employing any Cafe Roma staff members who wish to remain with UCLA, Bloch said. As of yet, Cafe Roma owner Sandy Boyd has not responded to the offer and as such, no employees have been placed, Bloch said.
Il Tramezzino management declined to comment on their plans for the cafe, saying only that “nothing has been finalized as of yet.”