Bluff's Shut Down, Rex Moves in

Last February, the student union-owned restaurant, Bluff’s, was shut down with much controversy. In early fall of this year, a new restaurant, named Rex’s Den, after the school mascot, will open in its place.

The old restaurant, Bluff’s, was closed up due to financial problems among other reasons, according to Zuhair Syed, the president of the SCSU. “A lot of students were complaining about a number of issues; like the cost of food, the speed of service, the hours of operation, the lack of events, the cost of booking events and the fact that there was no games room”.
Bluff’s has tried many tactics to improve its customer base. Throughout the five years that it has been in service, the restaurant has changed menus and swapped managers with no improvement in business.

Back in the winter, the SCSU loaned $30,000 to Bluff’s after the initial $140,000 from the union was used up. However, it wasn’t enough to keep the restaurant running. Instead of supporting a business that was running a deficit for five years, the executives of the SCSU decided to close the restaurant and increase their own paycheques. In defence, the SCSU stated that the decision was voted on by the Annual General Meeting of Members and that the SCSU union is one of the lowest paid student unions in the country.

Despite those two facts, the salary increase incited a great uproar within the student body, including a sit-in at the Bluff’s restaurant where Syed and a number of SCSU executives answered students’ questions.

“We answered everything that we could, and I got the impression that many students were content after their questions were answered” says Syed, of the sit-in. “There was a protest, but these things happen, if you lose your job tomorrow, you’d be upset, and that’s natural. We’re trying to explain to them [the students] that at the end of the day, it’s important to evaluate what direction the restaurant is moving in.”

Now that the dust has settled, the SCSU is hoping that Rex’s Den will be a success. The business plan of the new restaurant is based on suggestions from students. “Not a single suggestion that a student has made was not included in that business plan”, says Syed.

Rex’s Den will be a pub-style restaurant where students can hang-out and socialize. There will be a consistent menu of regular pub foods, such as nachos or chicken wings, but there will also be a change of menus every once in a while that includes cultural foods.

“There’s a lot of cultural diversity on campus, so we have to cater to those students. We’re going to keep the staple foods, but at the same time, we’re going to change the menu all the time. Some of the ideas that we have on the table are maybe monthly cultural foods” says Syed. “We want to offer Mediterranean food, Indian food, Caribbean food, all sorts of things.”

While the new business plan seems very ambitious, Syed assures that the new General Manager of Rex’s Den, Amir Vahidy, is capable to run the restaurant and deal with the constant menu changes. Vahidy has previous experience managing several successful restaurants. Syed wants to make clear that while the student union owns the restaurant, it does not manage its affairs.
Hopefully, where Bluff’s has failed, Rex’s Den will not. “We’re just optimistic that we can make this happen and make it big” says Syed, of the new restaurant. He envisions the pub to be a busy place where students can get away from their studies and enjoy campus events.

“If you go to any campus in Canada, you’ll pretty much have at least one restaurant or pub where students enjoy, have a good time, take a break from your studies, and meet new people. We’re missing a big part of campus life without a place to hang-out.”