Kosher Dining to move to fmr. Boccie

With its current location set to become the new home of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, the Kosher Dining facility will move next fall to the warehouse near 40th and Locust streets where Boccie Pizza was formerly located, officials said. The University will lease the space -- previously occupied by a long list of retailers including Boccie and Urban Outfitters -- and use it as a place for kosher dining service. According to Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta, the building has been bought by a private real estate operation that agreed to lease part of the warehouse to Penn for Kosher Dining. He declined to give the name of the company. Kosher Dining will occupy the restaurant portion of the building, which covers about 8,000 square feet, making it larger than the dining facility in its current location, Moneta said. "It provides an added space that's actually pretty attractive and funky," Moneta said. The space itself also provides opportunities for Hillel programming, one of many possibilities the University is currently considering in light of the upcoming move. Hillel Director Jeremy Brochin said that Hillel and the University are "considering options for programming" on the western end of campus to complement the new dining facility. "We're working very closely with Hillel to use the space effectively," Moneta said, stressing that these options are only a possibility and that the only confirmed plans at the moment are for the Kosher dining facility. The space will be renovated this summer to accommodate the dining facility, Moneta said. The cost of the project, which the University will likely fund, has not yet been determined. But although Kosher Dining is moving dinner service to the new location, lunch service will probably remain in the Hillel building because "student patterns are on Locust Walk near our building" during the day, Brochin said. "I think students are on this end of campus during lunchtime and that makes sense," he added. College senior Ami Butler, outgoing president of the Hillel student board, said that new location will open up exciting possibilities for more Hillel programming. "This is going to be a third center that is an opportunity to expand Jewish life all throughout campus," Butler said. He added that although the move may cause some students inconvenience from their regular evening schedules, it will benefit others who live on the western end of campus. "I think it's a balance and you're never going to make everyone happy," Butler said. "It's certainly not unmanageable." Boccie Pizza and Salad, the former main inhabitant of the warehouse, was formed in 1994 following the bankruptcy of both Boccie Pizza and Saladalley, two tenants in the warehouse. It went out of business last fall. A portion of the warehouse now currently houses the Video Library, which will not be affected by Kosher Dining's move.