Students and faculty gathered at the corner of Donaghey Avenue and Bruce Street to celebrate the 1907 Bread Company’s official grand reopening on Sept. 6.
The event kicked off with brief speeches by Aramark General Manager Joshua Gorham, Aramark Marketing Programs and Innovation Manager Kasey Schluterman and UCA President Houston Davis.
Gorham said, “You know it’s been a long time coming to reopen 1907, and I just can’t say enough thanks to the team that helped put this together, to the university that made sure that we had everything that we needed from a support standpoint, to make sure that this happens and that it happens well for our university and also now for the whole city.”
“I just want to say a quick word of thanks to all of the team members who really put in a lot of work to really make sure this happened and from the team on the ground here at 1907 who do just an amazing job, fantastic service. We want to just continue that momentum of fantastic service and serving local food products,” Gorham said.
“We’re serving food from around the state: Petit Jean Farms, to Old Mill Bakery, to PattiCakes, and so we just want to continue on that journey of serving local food and local ingredients to our student body and the city of Conway,” Gorham said.
Schluterman said as an “Arkansas girl,” a UCA alumna and now as an Aramark worker, she has seen lots of growth at UCA. Schluterman said seeing those three pillars of her identity come together in the 1907 brand has had a great impact on her.
“It has a level of pride that’s hard to explain,” Schluterman said.
Thinking back to a time when she was visiting the location to do a progress check, Schluterman spoke about a meaningful interaction with a freshman at UCA.
“She introduced herself and said, ‘What is this?’ Paul [Deden] jumped right in and said ‘This is the sandwich shop. We serve breakfast, coffee, and local items.’ And she said, ‘Oh wait a minute, this is that great sandwich shop from the old building. That’s, like, the best-kept secret.’ And of course, you know, my heart exploded with excitement that that was the reputation of the location,” she said.
“We are so excited to offer that great sandwich, but maybe the secret’s out and it’s on the corner and available to everybody,” Schluterman said.
Davis said he is happy 1907 is no longer a campus secret.
“It’s putting Paul and this great team and the wonderful food that they provide for us out here to where not only the UCA campus but also the Conway community can interact with it,” Davis said.
Davis said, “Thank you to everybody that exercised some patience as we were putting back into place what really is one of the most popular things on this campus. I can tell you with the Burdick fire, there were all sorts of comments that came in thereafter and a lot of questions about what was going on. I can safely put 80% of those [questions] into the category of ‘When’s the sandwich shop going to be back?’.”
After Davis concluded his speech, Deden was given the honor of doing the ribbon-cutting.
Inside, workers gave out free sandwich samples and cake.
Visitors could also spin a prize wheel and win a 1907 shirt, a 1907 cup, a free meal ticket, a free drink ticket, a free combo, 10 dining dollars, a Polaroid camera, a Vivitar phone stabilizer or a Google Chromecast.
The 1907 Bread Company is open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.