Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Clear, 69°Wind: mph,
Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
An error introduced in editing mislabeled the name of the restaurant.
The student-run restaurant, formerly known as the 100 West Café, is back in business at New Mexico State University. It has been revamped as Westside Bistro, located at the University’s Gerald Thomas Hall at 940 College Drive, Las Cruces.
The restaurant that once served three-course meals ushered in the new change to accommodate students and city residents. Director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, Jean Hertzman, said this was a needed change.
“100 West Café was built around 2005, and I started in 2016, and it really did not have much renovation since we changed it. It only had some pictures on the wall, but with this revamp, although limited, we were able to spruce it up,” Hertzman said.
“But the students came up with nice ideas for changing the décor, simplifying it, making it look modern. Then renaming the lunches really modernizes it and puts it more in line with the changes our Chef Danielle Young initiated last semester.”
Hertzman said the menu now introduces a-la-carte items, making it far more convenient for students on the go.
“Before, a lot of our students and even faculty were more-so worried about not having enough time to eat. Now, you can get an appetizer and eat in 15 minutes if that’s all you have or even a full meal,” she said.
The solid change came after Young proposed the idea to Hertzman in the fall of 2024, with new menu items to accommodate a short time frame.
“My marketing students also take the quantitative food class, which runs the bistro, and we were all discussing how we could get more people to each lunch there, and one of the things the students mentioned was how outdated it was. After that, my department head (Hertzman) and I discussed it, allowing us to re-brand and redecorate it to make it more of a restaurant space,” Young said.
Young added that the restaurant has always been named after the room number of the actual class. She and her students felt that it needed to be separated from the “classroom setting” and bring in the restaurant ambiance.
Aside from the usual menu, one of the restaurant's “outdated” issues was the wall décor. Young and Hertzman said they now have new art that is not only in style but also from current NMSU art students.
“We get to work alongside other departments and showcase other students work alongside ours at the restaurant, really giving each other that community experience,” Hertzman added.
Both NMSU faculty members said the goal was to bring in more students and faculty.
They said that with students and faculty having so little time in the day, they wanted to eliminate the necessity of having to sit and wait an hour or two to eat.
“It seemed like the restaurant was fancy, and a lot of people thought they could not eat there like it was invitation only or that it was more of a club. We were going to keep the three-course meal, but we would have had to increase prices and with our community but with our students we couldn’t do that, so we decided to do a-la-carte,” Young said.
She said the student will learn to serve and cook, be a manager, and manage guest services in about five weeks.
“It’s hard to learn and make changes so we decided to keep the menu the entire semester rather than a new menu every week. Last semester we first started the a-la-carte menu, and it was a bit rocky but then we introduced weekly specials which is designed purely by our students and the guest love it,” Young said.
“The good thing about it all is if someone only has 15 minutes, they can come in and get their food very quickly, they no longer need an hour or hour and a half to dine with us.”
Young added that they have a regular customer base that continues to show up and hopes the restaurant's fan base can grow now that it is open to the community.
Westside Bistro is open to the public on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch, with weekly specials. Young added that people can also call to place an order for pick up during operating hours on Fridays.
The menu includes appetizers, full-course meals, and desserts; prices range from $5 to $12.
Young asks that she be contacted directly to accommodate parties larger than eight people. She can be reached at danielly@nmsu.edu or 575-646-8099.
