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Sustainability elements at the Blue Wall complex include energy/pollution controls, demand-controlled ventilation on all hoods, all exhaust filtered to pure air, the use of 100 percent compostables, single-stream recycling, a reduction of paper usage by 70 percent over the pre-renovation venue and the number of landfill items reduced to only three. LEED Gold certification was under review at this writing.
An abundance of natural light, increased transparency and custom LED lighting improves the overall ambiance and allows for flexible seating, quiet study and lounge spaces and a more engaging connection to the outdoors.
There are 860 seats in the retail area plus a 100-seat private function room.
European-style inspired communal seating is one of the Blue Wall design highlights.
Modern design elements were incorporated into pre-existing structures to make the most efficient use of the concrete building: polished cement floors and open ceilings combine with chain mail and colored lighting and live plants produce a unique urban design while utilizing the pre-existing space cut costs and increase project sustainability.
Located on the Murray Center’s main concourse, Peoples Organic offers fair-trade coffee, tea and espresso-based drinks along with all-natural and organic offerings like fresh pastries made daily, salads and sandwiches made in a central commissary and hot sandwiches prepared to order in a rapid-cook oven.
Similar in style to a Whole Foods’ or Wegmans’ prepared foods section, Harvest Fresh Market, Blue Wall’s busiest station, is an upscale market serving healthy, sustainable, tasty fare for on-the-go customers. It includes a made-to-order juice/smoothie bar with customizable raw ingredients, a constantly rotating hot bar with various world cuisines, a freshly composed prepared salad bar using locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, bagels from a local New York-style shop topped with various flavored cream cheeses and the nation’s first Chobani Creation Station yogurt bar. What it doesn’t sell: traditional candies and snack foods.
Student favorite Famous Famiglia Pizzaria offers fresh, housemade pizza, grinders, whole-grain pasta dishes made to order with fresh ingredients, salads and more from its double-deck brick oven and rapid-cook convection oven. The dough is made fresh onsite at the adjacent Yum! Bakery. The station also produces some 300 pizzas a week for the UMass catering operation.
Yum! is a full-service bakery producing freshly baked organic cookies, pastries, cakes, French macaroons and various seasonal treats that vary daily. It also makes items for other locations like scones, cookies, bars and muffins for People’s Organic, pizza dough for Famous Famiglia (using authentic New York City tap water!) and all the rolls used by Deli Delish.
Customers can preorder any number of indulgent concoctions for their office, home or special event at Yum! Bakery.
The Paciugo gelato bar is incorporated in the Yum! Bakery and retails traditionally crafted Italian gelatos using fresh fruits and all-natural ingredients.
Paciugo’s authentic Italian gelatos are light, smooth and contain 70 percent less fat than ice cream. A variety of flavors, made onsite fresh daily, are offered.
Named for a local town, Greenfields offers a variety of hand-tossed salad and wrap options, either off the set menu or customized, using locally sourced items when available.
The Chef’s Table updates classic favorite dishes using local/responsibly sourced ingredients. The main venue for visiting and guest chefs and site of the annual UMass Dining Thanksgiving Dinner, the station is characterized by its vertical rotisserie oven.
A fresh taco salad in a tortilla bowl made onsite in the Tamales station’s tortilla oven that, like everything else at Tamales, can be seen by guest through floor-to-ceiling glass walls at the station’s location at the Blue Wall’s main entrance.
Tamales menus authentic Mexican fare like rice bowls, salads and the pictured burritos that feature ingredients like Niman Ranch pork and beef and free-roam local chicken.
Fresh, restaurant-quality sushi, such as this Maki Rainbow Roll (a California roll topped with assorted raw fish, avocado and masago), made with sustainably harvested seafood—including raw tuna and salmon—is the highlight of Wasabi’s menu, which also features tepanyaki and doburi made to order in front of customers. Sides include miso soup, seaweed salad and edamame.
A favorite item at Wasabi is the Blue Wall Don, a fusion donburi dish made with beef bulgagi, spinach, vegetable tempura and fried egg with a special donburi sauce.
Burgers and grilled sandwiches featuring Niman Ranch beef, free-roam local chicken and Plainville Farm all-natural turkey, made by a chef viewed by customers in the glass-enclosed grill, are the specialty of The Grill. Garnishes include local cheddar, and the menu also features milkshakes made with local milk and ice cream.
Created in partnership with celebrity chef Mai Pham, Star Ginger is one of Blue Wall’s busiest stations and its largest (it is actually larger than the entire original Blue Wall complex).
Star Ginger’s menu offers authentic Vietnamese, Thai and other Asian specialties, from rice/salad bowls, bahn mi sandwiches and curries/stir-fries to Vietnamese smoothies and either Thai or pho noodles soups (pictured is a vegetarian pho noodle soup with tofu).
