Rachel Weisel | The joy of dining out while staying in

'Winter greens with oven-roasted plum tomatoes and a balsamic honey-basil dressing, beef Wellington with finger-link potatoes roasted in garlic and baby vegetables, homemade cheesecake with raspberry coulis and fresh whipped cream."

Sounds like a gourmet meal on the Food Network or on the menu at a Stephen Starr restaurant, right? Wrong. As surprising as it may sound, this was the dinner menu from Hill College House's first Restaurant Night, held last Thursday.

Usually, when something sounds too good to be true, it is. But it seems that, finally, Penn dining is making a much-needed effort to improve dining options for students.

When I walked through the door into the Hill Gallery dining room, unsure of what to expect, I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I definitely wasn't in Kansas - I mean Hill - anymore.

How else could I explain the burgundy tablecloths, the candles and the wine glasses? Gone were the plastic trays and Styrofoam cups. Instead, actual folded cloth napkins and silverware had been carefully placed in front of us.

I couldn't believe it when one of the staff members asked me what I wanted to drink. Could it be that I was no longer at the mercy of the ice machine or the soda fountain? In this living space, where even the bare necessities often go neglected, the notion of being waited on certainly seemed to come from somewhere over the rainbow.

After a hard day of classes, homework and other daily frustrations, it felt great to be treated to an evening out while dining in.

"Tasty," "delicious" and "nice change" are not phrases I normally hear over dinner in the Hill cafeteria. But tonight, the unfamiliar sound of praise was not in short supply.

"The food was divine - worth three meal swipes," College freshman Ingrid Lindquist said.

Unlike in the cafeteria, the wait here was virtually nonexistent. This proved especially nice, considering the fact that we usually have to stand in line for up to 15 minutes, just to get an anemic-looking piece of mystery meat.

The taste and presentation of this food, moreover, were top-notch. The entire meal, from the salad dressing to the cheesecake, was made from scratch in Penn's kitchens, according to Hill College House's Executive Chef Jerome Grochocki.

"Our goal is to create more incentive for students to come back and use the facilities for their second, third and fourth years of college. We are trying to do that by upgrading the food we're serving and making a more comfortable and casual environment," Grochocki said.

While Restaurant Night is certainly a big step toward achieving this objective, a program of a much larger scale will be necessary to keep upperclassmen on a meal plan. Until the prices of meal plans decrease dramatically, increasing the quality of the food is the next best thing.

The 48 people who were organized enough to think ahead and make reservations - you had to RSVP to attend - had the privilege of dining in a warm, intimate environment that was perfect for a date, eating with friends or just going alone to meet new people.

The pleasant ambience certainly made it easier to pay for the exorbitant price of a meal, which costs about the same as eating out in a nice restaurant anyway.

"I really appreciate the extra effort Penn is making. A lot of people complain about the food, and events like this boost morale," Wharton freshman James Liu said.

Restaurant Night, which will occur at various dining halls across campus on a rotating basis, is just one of the many promotional programs Penn Dining will feature this spring.

Another major series of special meals, known as weekly Creative Cuisine Nights, began Jan. 16. Normally, I would question whether creativity belongs in a dining hall. However, in this case, I think having themed dinners adds extra variety to an otherwise mundane selection. After all, you can only live off of the usual staples (turkey sandwiches, lukewarm yogurt, pizza with the twisted crust, etc.) for so long, before needing a change.

Before you let your meals go to waste by stockpiling bottled water, make sure to give these new programs a try. If enough students show interest, maybe Penn Dining's special occasions will become the new norm.

And remember to make your reservations for the next Restaurant Night early, before I beat you to it.

Rachel Weisel is a College freshman from Chesterfield, Missouri. Her e-mail address is weisel@dailypennsylvanian.com. Writes of Passage appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.