RoadRunner: A new Mexican food dining option on campus

Students entering the Tilley Student Center after spring break were met with the unfamiliar, warm aroma of Mexican dishes. The source? Sodexo’s new Mexican-style restaurant: Roadrunner. 

Sitting directly across from Fresh Market and decorated in a food truck-inspired fashion, Roadrunner took the place of the Hungry Herbivore, Sodexo’s previous plant-forward food option that was installed at the beginning of the fall 2022 semester.

The Hungry Herbivore’s goal was to provide more food options to students who were vegan or vegetarian, and it offered only plant-forward meals. However, business became low and the popularity of the restaurant dwindled, and as a result, Roadrunner was brought in to replace it. 

“Throughout the fall, we realized that Liberty students didn’t really like plant-forward,” Duke Davis, district manager of Sodexo, said. “So, we ran a survey over the course of two weeks, giving students a variety of different food options to choose from, and it got a lot of responses, Mexican being the No. 1 choice.” 

Replacing meals like vegan burgers, vegan eggs and pasta bowls, Roadrunner brings Chipotle-style meals like burritos, quesadillas and tacos to the table. This gives students a continued variety of food options to choose from
around campus. 

“We wanted to make it like a Chipotle, where students could watch their chicken be cooked on the grill, making the menu really student-friendly. We try to make it Liberty-specific so that no other school has it,” Davis said. 

The new presence of the food truck has earned the attention of staff and students alike, filling the once empty space with a wrap-around line on a daily basis. Among those who have visited Roadrunner is senior Claire Sweeney.

“I really like the Roadrunner,” Sweeney said. “I think it brings more choices that students will enjoy. I had a bowl, but I’m really excited to try a quesadilla next time.” 

The Roadrunner isn’t the only new addition that greeted students after spring break, though, as SubConnection added new mobile order lockers, and Hey Cow implemented two new order kiosks.

“We will keep adding more to dining on campus, and it’s important that students fill out the surveys in order to give us feedback. There is a spring food survey out now that we encourage students to take because we truly use the responses to continue to build onto on-campus dining,” Davis said.

To stay informed on dining-related updates, students can follow Liberty Dining on social media, @libertydining. 

Hess is the asst. news editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on Twitter