The Davis campus’s only full-service restaurant reopened this week with a new name and a big helping of UC Davis flavor.

The Gunrock Pub, formerly known as the Silo Café & Pub, emphasizes homegrown foods: produce from the campus’s new Good Life Garden (at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science), meat from the university’s Meat Laboratory, and olive oil from the UC Davis Olive Center.

“It’s a way to promote the cool things that the campus is doing,” said Robin Clement, marketing and project specialist for Sodexo, the company that runs the pub and all other campus food services except for the Coffee House.

The Gunrock Pub’s namesake, the Aggie mascot, welcomed the first diners on opening day, Jan. 5, the first day of classes. The Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh performed as Gunrock and other dignitaries cut a ceremonial red ribbon.

Today (Jan. 9) marks the last day of the Gunrock Pub’s opening week special: free dessert with every meal. Also today, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Good Life Garden representatives are due to be on hand to provide information about the garden and walking tours.

The pub is open weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and for special events — including new Wednesday night wine tastings (see below).

New decorations include photos of the Good Life Garden, campus vineyards and orchards, and the university’s Wolfskill Ranch and its 150-year-old olive trees.“It feels like it has the soul of UC Davis,” Clement said. “That was a piece that was missing before.”

Sodexo and Student Affairs Design Services collaborated on the restaurant’s new look, which includes new china and chairs, black tablecloths and gold napkins.

The pub’s location, tucked in the back of the Silo Union, makes the restaurant “the best kept secret on campus,” Clement said. “Unless you know about it, or stumble upon it, you would never know it’s there.”

And, yet, she said, there is plenty of reason to go, especially with the restaurant’s new emphasis on campus foods. She said executive chef Ruben Andrade artfully worked the produce, meats and olive oil into his new menu, and he will use the same products in weekly specials.

One menu item is Gunrock Pasta: “Bowtie pasta tossed with creamy pesto and award-winning UCD Gunrock Olive Oil with cherry tomato and sweet tender asparagus topped with fresh grated parmesan cheese.”

‘Vegetables of their labors’

Winter, of course, is not one of the Good Life Garden’s prime production times. Still, it yielded two crates of produce for the Gunrock Pub’s opening day, said Cary Avery, grounds superintendent with the campus’s Buildings and Grounds division, which maintains the garden.

Avery and three colleagues started the harvest at 6 a.m. that day, and within hours, the “vegetables of their labors” had been washed and served to paying customers.

The Student Farm and the Growers Collaborative are two other local sources of produce for the restaurant.

From the Gunrock Pub’s food to the carryout containers to the garbage, the restaurant is committed to sustainability, Sodexo officials said.

“The mission of the new restaurant is to showcase the fabulous campus-produced foods and local specialties, and to engage in a sustainable food system,” said Gina Rios, general manager for Sodexo’s retail operations on the Davis Campus.

Besides food from campus and other local sources, the pub serves fair trade coffee and teas — further demonstrating the pub’s commitment to a sustainable food system, Clement said.

Carryout orders are packaged in biodegradable containers, and all of the restaurant’s post-consumer food and paper waste is hauled away for composting, through a program run by the campus’s R4 Recycling.

R4 (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rebuy) hauls the waste to Jepson Prairie Organics in Vacaville. The company’s end product is put up for sale, for use in growing new food crops. So, when UC Davis and other farmers use the compost, they are completing the sustainability circle.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Gunrock Pub (formerly the Silo Café & Pub), restaurant, and beer and wine bar.

WHERE: Silo Union (the pub is near the Silo’s back door, on the building’s south side, due west of the Bike Barn).

MENU: Featuring produce from the campus’s Good Life Garden, meat from the university’s Meat Laboratory, and olive oil from the UC Davis Olive Center. (See the menu on the Gunrock Pub Web site.)

HOURS: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays (11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in summer); closed weekends and university holidays. Lunch reservations are encouraged and can be arranged by calling (530) 752-6262.

OTHER INFORMATION: The Gunrock Pub is available for private events and catering. Robin Clement, marketing and project specialist for Sodexo, described the restaurant as “a charming and quaint venue” for lectures, dinners, receptions and socials. The restaurant can accommodate 95 people for sit-down dinners; an additional 85 people can be accommodated on the patio if the weather is suitable. Patio receptions can accommodate 200.

WEB SITE: gunrockpub.ucdavis.edu

WEDNESDAY NIGHT WINE FLIGHTS

The Gunrock Pub and the Cal Aggie Alumni Association’s Vintage Aggies Wine Club this week launched a series of monthly wine tastings at the pub. Spokeswoman Robin Clement said the programs feature some of today’s finest winemakers, many of whom are UC Davis graduates, plus retired UC Davis enologist Walter Winton as “resident wine expert.”

All of the wine tastings are scheduled at the pub from 5 to 6:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month. (The starting time is a half-hour earlier than originally planned, based on the success of the first event Jan. 7.) The cost is $10, with no reservations needed.

Each program has a different theme:

Feb. 4—Yolo County Wines, meet the winemakers and taste their products in pairings with local foods.

March 4—Wine Spectator >89