Adam Amato Emerald
Historically Homestyle
Students love the campus restaurant because it offers
‘reasonable prices, homemade-style food and quality service’
By Aliyson Taylor
for the Emerald
When University Professor
W.R.B Willcox designed
1340 Alder St. in the 1920s,
it was intended to be an
apartment building. Over the years,
it has been home to a variety of dif
ferent businesses, and today Uni
versity students and Eugene resi
dents know it as the Campus
Glenwood.
Rick and Karren Lareau founded
the Glenwood restaurant in 1976 in
Glenwood and named it after the
town. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1978,
Jacqui Monninger bought the Glen
wood from the Lareaus, and in
1981, she moved it to Eugene,
where it opened on Willamette
Street. Then, Monninger said, a
friend told her a restaurant on
Alder Street had gone out of busi
ness and the building would be
good for another location. In April
1983, Monninger opened the Glen
wood Campus Cafe.
The building has a long history.
Monninger said it was a bookstore
when she was in college. Night
Manager Michael Gann said it had
also housed a jewelry store and
once sold hot dogs from the side
service door. But it was originally
an apartment complex.
“Customers who are 60 (years
old) tell me they used to live in this
building,” Monninger said. She
thinks part of the Glenwood’s mag
ic is that these people can visit
their former home, have a nice
meal and remember the times
when they lived there,
Gann believes the Glenwood has
a good reputation because Mon
ninger knows how to treat the cus
tomers.
“She has a policy: The customers
get whatever they want,” Gann
said. “Substitutions in the menu
can be made to cater to the cus
tomer’s needs. Tofu can be added
service and affordable prices.”
She also believes it is easier for
the Glenwood to accomplish those
goals because it’s an independent
restaurant.
“Independent restaurants often
do better than chains,” Monninger
said. “As an independent restau
rant you can go with what the com
munity wants, such as getting tofu
on the menu, where at our other lo
cation it is not as popular. You can
Ul <3gg yUlKS LaKtUl
out. She also be
lieves in service
with a smile. She
makes up the
menu herself, so it
is all very origi
nal, and that adds
its own unique
ness.”
Monninger
said she’s been in
the restaurant
business since
she was 17 years
‘We don’t have any parking
space around here, so we
have to make up for it with
great food, wonderful
service and affordable
prices”
Jacqui Monninger
owner, Glenwood Campus Cafe
also respond bet
ter to demand
than chains
when you are in
dependent.”
Gann has
worked for Mon
ninger for the
past nine years
and said the
Glenwood “is the
best place in
town to work.”
“Jacqui be
lieves in treating
old, and through that experience
she “learned somewhere along the
way how not to treat people,”
which is why it is so important to
her that her customers get what
they want.
“We want the restaurant to be
something special and (memo
rable), while at the same time af
fordable,” Monninger said. “We
don’t have any parking space
around here, so we have to make
up for it with great food, wonderful
her employees as one treats cus
tomers. She hires people who all
get along,” he said.
It’s important for employees to
enjoy what they are doing because
that feeling is then passed on to the
customers, Gann said. Gann and
Monninger both agree that “having
a wonderful staff who all get along
is another reason the Glenwood is
such a wonderful place.”
“This place is also great because
of the location and the type of peo
pie who come in to eat. We always
have great customers,” Monninger
said. “Every type of people comes
in: old, young, students, business
people, skateboarders. They make
up our atmosphere where everyone
feels welcome.”
Student patrons like not only the
Glenwood’s menu, but also its
proximity to the University.
“They have reasonable prices,
homemade-style food and quality
service,” University sophomore
Andryce Anderson said. “I have
my parents take me there when
they come visit because it is close
to campus and the food is great.”
Gann said the tomato cheese
soup is the most popular item on
the menu and a Glenwood trade
mark that everyone loves. “Break
fast is also served every day, all
day, which is very popular with
the customers,” he said. “We also
have one of the best patios in
town.”
“You can get a great grilled
cheese sandwich and a bowl of
tomato cheese soup for under $4. It
is a nice place with good food near
campus,” senior Peter Vomocil
said. “For the first couple of years I
was here, I took my parents there
until we exhausted the menu. Now
I get to share it with my grandpar
ents when they come to town to
visit me.”
AUyson Taylor is a freelance reporter
for the Oregon Daily Emerald.