Eliot Grille Gets Makeover

It’s got a sleek new paint job, chrome trim, and a flaming grille. But rather than powering up a car, this sweet machine revs up Harvard’s students. This fall, the Eliot Grille, a student-run snack bar in Eliot House, is getting a neat new facelift.

Proposed changes would transform its previous, drab decor into something that resembles a ’50s diner. Nondescript walls will now be washed in bright red and blue. And the House is buying ’50s-style furniture to complement the new paint job. This furniture would add to the Grille’s existing collection of retro furniture. Movie posters on the walls and records hanging from the ceiling will add to the new atmosphere.

The Grille’s proposed journey back in time has been led by Eliot House residents Maya E. Frommer ’07 and Jennifer C. O’Brien ’07. Frommer said she first pitched the redesign theme to the Eliot House Committee (HoCo) as a possible way of making the then-closed Grille usable again. Her design scheme, she said, was inspired by some basic elements of the old Grille’s appearance.

“Before [the renovation] there was a black-and-white checkered floor and chrome furniture,” she said. “It sort of looked like a ’50s diner.”

Frommer did most of the painting work over Thanksgiving break with help from other students. The project is overseen by the Eliot HoCo and the Eliot House masters.

The changes were paid for out of the House budget, but, according to Frommer, the costs were kept low.

“The paint was not that expensive,” said Frommer. “The labor would have been the worst [expense], but I did it myself.”

The changes in the Grille will not just be visual. The menu is also changing in an effort to appeal to the palates of hungry Eliot residents, according to Samia S. Farooqi ’07, one of the Grille’s managers.

“We’re trying to attract a wider audience by having healthier options [in the Grille] as well” said Farooqi. Although most of the menu changes don’t hearken back to the age of drive-ins, the Grille has plans to extend the 50’s theme into service, she said.

According to Farooqi, Frommer had suggested that some of the servers wear roller skates to recreate a ’50s atmosphere.

The renovations in Eliot follow recently complete renovations to the Dunster Grille. The actual changes in Dunster were similar to those in Eliot—and had many of the same goals. Both Houses were trying to woo more Grille customers, according to the managers of the two snack bars.

“We painted the grill and brightened the colors and included some murals as opposed to the drab green that had been there,” said Ian P. Lindblom ’07, who helped with the Dunster renovations.

And, in a multi-Grille University, some elements of competition prevail, too.

“Anything that sets the Grille apart will translate into better profits and better publicity for Grille,” O’Brien said.

The Eliot Grille’s new paint job is slated to be finished this week. Furniture and decorations will be coming in over the next month, according to Frommer.

“We’ll probably have a big grand reopening in January” she said.