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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

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Students Sample Hilltoss Salads

COURTESY STUDENTS OF GEORGETOWN, INC. The Corp’s Hilltoss will operate a stand at the Georgetown University Farmers’ Market in anticipation of its fall 2014 opening.
COURTESY STUDENTS OF GEORGETOWN, INC.
The Corp’s Hilltoss will operate a stand at the Georgetown University Farmers’ Market in anticipation of its fall 2014 opening.

At an official unveiling in Sellinger Lounge, employees at Hilltoss, a new Students of Georgetown Inc. location that will sell salads, smoothies and frozen yogurt, gave out free samples and solicited student input.

“The main point of this installation … is to communicate to the Georgetown community first of all what our product offering is for both the Farmers’ Market this spring and in the fall, actually in the academic year of 2014 to 2015, in the actual store,” Director of Hilltoss Dana Mitchell (MSB ’15) said.

Although a Hilltoss stand will open from March 19 to April 30 at the Georgetown University Farmers’ Market, the actual location in the Healey Family Student Center will not open until fall 2014.

The installation also revealed the newly designed Hilltoss logo.

“We kind of sat down and brainstormed — what does the Hilltoss mean; how does it fit in the Hilltop; and then how can we translate that visually into the logo,’” Mitchell said.

The logo depicts a leaf sprouting out of the store’s name.

A major part of the installation focused on receiving student input.

“A huge point of this isn’t just the event and the sampling of the salads, it’s us being able to talk to them [the students] and see what they are looking for in the Hilltoss,” Mitchell said.

This solicitation continued the crowdsourcing aspect of the new storefront’s development.

“If you remember last year, we sourced the name in a competition, in a submission style Google form where every single name that we looked at came from the Georgetown community and came from students,” Mitchell said.

In order to continue including student input, Hilltoss will have a suggestion box at its market stand.

“One thing we’d like to include is a submission box, or something like that, maybe a Google form, some activity to really get people to participate in our recipes and in our operations and to communicate with us … so we can really take into account what the students want from the Hilltoss. That’s our number one priority,” Mitchell said.

Student input will help Hilltoss put its best products forward when the location opens.

“I think in terms of vibes for the Farmers’ Market, again we are definitely looking for input from the Georgetown community because we want to keep reevaluating our quality and really have an introspective approach to our product offering,” Mitchell said, “Our number one priority for this service is high-quality products, and I think we are willing to take suggestions from the community, from students and make adjustments as need be.”

Corp CEO Sam Rodman (MSB ’15) believes that the market will give Hilltoss the opportunity to show the importance of students’ needs.

“The jump from coffee to a full-fledged restaurant style salad shop is a pretty big one and the Farmers’ Market is an excellent opportunity for us to, number one, show students that we’ve been really committed to addressing their concerns and putting together a product that students are really going to fall in love with, and for us to really make sure we are meeting the best interests of students,”Rodman said.

The installation offered two different salads to sample. The Jay Gatsby summer salad featured strawberries, avocado, goat cheese, walnuts and strawberry-blush dressing‬, while the Amalfi Coast Italian salad included mozzarella, tomato, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and a balsamic dressing.

Alex De Luca (COL ’15) expressed satisfaction with his sample. However, the presence ofSweetgreen still leaves Hilltoss with competition.

“I think next year I’m going to be living closer to campus, but I’m also going to be living like a block and half from Sweetgreen, so maybe if I’m on campus I’d rather go here than somewhere else,” De Luca said.

Although other students also enjoyed the salads, they expressed a desire for more options.

“I think it shouldn’t be just a salad place, like they should have other things,” Yue Ma (COL ’17) said, “I think it would be really cool if they opened something else to eat other than just salads and smoothies.”

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