This week, I bring you all a dining dollar friendly location on campus, the William Pitt Union. The building most Pitt students now call WPU, was once called The Hotel Schenley. It was built in 1898 by Franklin Nicola and featured stockholders such as Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon, H.J. Heinz. The hotel was filled with marble, chandeliers, and lovely architecture which added to its elegance. It was so beautiful that it attracted former presidents William Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight Eisenhower. In 1909 the hotel hosted many National League baseball players including legendary Babe Ruth. In the 1950s, the hotel became surrounded by hospitals and educational facilities and was ultimately sold to the University of Pittsburgh. At first, the building served both as a student union and a men’s dormitory. In 1989, renovations were made, and the dormitory was removed and the William Pitt Union we all know and love was born.
Featured on the ground floor of WPU are six different food options. Nicola’s Garden, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Sub Connection, Culinary Classics, and Strutters are all places that accept dining dollars. Culinary Classics offers cooked food that is not your average “fast food” unlike Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Nicola’s Garden offers salads made from local and organic ingredients and Sub Connection offers your typical subs, wraps, and they also offer a vegetarian option. If you don’t want a salad and are looking for protein, then Strutters is the place for you. Strutters focuses on protein and offers boneless wings, grilled chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches and a couple additional different menu options.
A perk of eating at WPU is that there are plenty of seating options and it generally isn’t too crowded. It is very rare that I am unable to find a place to sit and eat after buying my food. If you are low on time but find yourself in the WPU area, you can use Tapingo to preorder your food from either Taco Bell or Nicola’s Garden. Tapingo allows you to skip lines and grab your food whenever it is ready. The app operates similar to Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Chipotle mobile ordering. A cool thing about Tapingo is that you can connect it straight to your dinning dollars, so you aren’t paying with “real money”. Below I have listed the hours of operation for the different food options in WPU.
Nicolas Garden Mon-Thu: 11:00am-6:00pm
Fri: 11:00am- 2:30pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Pizza Hut Mon-Thu: 10:30am-9:00pm
Fri: 10:30am- 5:00pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Taco Bell Mon-Thu: 10:30am-9:00pm
Fri: 10:30am- 7:00pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Sub Connection Mon-Thu: 10:30am-7pm
Fri: 10:30am-2:30pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Culinary Classics Mon-Thu: 11:00am-6:00pm
Fri: 11:00am-2:30pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Strutters Mon-Thu: 10:30am-8:00pm
Fri: 10:30am-2:30pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
Panther Eats 