On Dec. 2, the Ram Hospitality newsletter announced that Fordham Lincoln Center’s (FLC) Ram Café, an on-campus dining facility, will be replacing Burgers + Fries with a Yella’s vendor. The change is scheduled for the spring and will feature similar cuisine.
Yella’s, a New Jersey-based chain, created its name and tagline, “Food Worth Screaming About,” in honor of its founder, Frank “Yella” Lorenzo, who was “always yelling and screaming to get people to the dance floor,” according to their website.
Yella’s food is currently served in almost 30 colleges and universities in the northeast. They offer students a variety of burgers, sandwiches, subs, sides and specialty hand-spun milkshakes.
“Bringing Yella’s to Ram Café allows us to offer students more variety and greater choice, while keeping favorites. The changes reflect feedback from the student community about their dining preferences.” Orla Fitzsimons, Director of Dining Business Operations and Contract Management
Orla Fitzsimons, director of Dining Business Operations and Contract Management, noted the popularity of Yella’s on many university campuses. She explained that the change is part of Fordham’s “ongoing effort to modernize campus dining.”
“Bringing Yella’s to Ram Café allows us to offer students more variety and greater choice, while keeping favorites,” Fitzsimons said. “The changes reflect feedback from the student community about their dining preferences.”
Replacing the well-established Burgers + Fries with a new vendor has drawn mixed reactions from some students. Seanna Sankar, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’28, and Moneeza Saleem, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’28, are both commuter students who often frequent Ram Café for a quick meal between classes. They both said they were curious as to the reasoning behind the switch.
This change follows a larger trend of Fordham upgrading its dining facilities and technology this semester.
“I just want to know how different it’s going to be because it’s bare minimum as it is,” Saleem said.
Ram Café is particularly popular among commuter students, according to Saleem and Sankar. Saleem said she is concerned about the possibility of higher prices at Yella’s. She cited having noticed an increase in the price of chicken tenders at Burgers + Fries from last semester, which she was “very mad about,” hence her concern about further changes.
Sankar also expressed a desire to know more about the pricing and quality of the new vendor, saying that she “just (doesn’t) know their process” for preparing food. As a student who does not eat beef, she also hopes that Yella’s will bring more diverse meats or vegan options. Burgers + Fries offers a vegetarian burger option.
According to Fitzsimons, Yella’s will provide a greater variety of menu options at comparable prices to Burgers + Fries, as well as combination meals that can be used with meal plans.
This change follows a larger trend of Fordham upgrading its dining facilities and technology this semester.
On the Rose Hill campus, students can now have their food delivered by seven Starship delivery robots located on campus, courtesy of GrubHub’s partnership with Starship. Through the GrubHub app, students can order a meal from an on-campus restaurant and a robot will deliver it to them anywhere on campus.
Every Wednesday until the end of the semester, the door rates at the all-you-can-eat Community Dining Hall will be reduced to $8 for anyone without a meal plan.
At FLC, Argo Tea was replaced with Saxbys, which opened on Oct. 1. Fordham was forced to replace their Argo Tea trademark after the owner filed for planned bankruptcy in 2021.
Upon hearing that Saxbys would be completely student-run, several students expressed concerns about the future of the former Argo Tea workers. These worries were assuaged upon the university’s confirmation that the employees would remain on campus and be reassigned to another dining facility. Sankar’s first question upon hearing about the changes to Ram Café was if the same people at Burgers + Fries would be operating at Yella’s. Fitzsimons assured that “all Ram Hospitality employees currently employed will remain in the location.”
As the semester draws to a close, a few events and initiatives will temporarily lower dining prices and increase their accessibility on the FLC campus.
Every Wednesday until the end of the semester, the door rates at the all-you-can-eat Community Dining Hall will be reduced to $8 for anyone without a meal plan. Additionally, Ram Hospitality’s traditional Late Night Breakfast will be held on Monday, Dec. 15 at 10:30 p.m. in Ram Café.
Students can also donate unused guest meal swipes to students affected by food insecurity, as part of the Ram Hospitality and Campus Ministry’s “Rams for Rams” Challenge.
Fitzsimons stated that the Yella’s team will be on campus next week to offer giveaways and discounted samples of some of their menu items. More information will be posted in the Ram Hospitality’s newsletter and on their social media.
