The Neon Café at
Grinnell Regional Medical Center offers a variety of specialty hot and cold
sandwiches, wraps, salads, soup of the day, daily sandwich special, drinks and
various sweet treats.
Tucked away on the first floor in the
northeast corner of the hospital, the Neon Café offers some unique sandwiches,
some named after medical terms, others named for departments in the hospital.
For instance, the AMA (Against Medical
Advice) is loaded with beef, genoa salami, turkey, Italian dressings, onion,
green pepper, mustard, mayo and provolone on a hoagie. And there is the HMO,
Club Med, Pharm Yard (named for the hospital pharmacy), Radio Wrap (for the
hospital radiology department), the BLTT (bacon, lettuce, tomato and turkey), and
the Kick’n Roast Beef Wrap, which café staff says is spicy.
There are favorites such as peanut butter
and jelly, chicken salad, egg salad, and tuna salad as well as specialty salads
such as the Nutty Cran Man or Chicken Bacon Club, and the Popeye wrap, which is
filled with chicken breast, spinach, croutons, lettuce, tomato and Caesar
dressing.
There is also a daily special that includes favorites
such as a panini, hot sandwiches or fish tacos.
Open
from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
the café is not only a lunch and supper spot for hospital employees and
families of patients, the general public is welcome to stop in and check out
the offerings. A small eating area with tables and chairs is located next to
the café.
“All the meats are sliced in house,” said
Kris Gilman, director of nutrition at GRMC. “We work with our supplier to
purchase as much Iowa-grown vegetables and food products as possible.”
The
Neon Café was previously called the Corner Café and was located in a kiosk near
the employee entrance. In 2007, the hospital revamped the area and created
space for the café. It was designed with
a grab-n-go concept in mind for staff. The café name, Neon Café, was the brainchild
of Todd Linden, president and CEO of GRMC.
“The concept was started for those hospital
departments who have a hard time getting away for lunch, such as surgeons and
surgery staff,” said Gilman. “Even if they only have five minutes, we want
hospital staff to feel refreshed and revived as if they were just starting
their work day. There are a lot of intense jobs in the hospital.”
There are 12 employees who alternate between
the Neon Café and the main kitchen, which is open 365 days per year.
The nutrition department purchases around
$4,400 worth of food per week. During the summer months, and when possible, the
department utilizes the fresh-grown vegetables raised in the Giving Garden
located behind the Light Center.
On average, the nutrition department
prepares and serves about 60 patient meals per day, and the Neon Café serves
around 180 customers per day.
“That can be anything from grabbing a can of
pop to eating a sandwich,” said Gilman of the Neon Café.
The kitchen also handles all of the hospital
in-house catering for board and foundation meetings, staff meetings and fundraisers.
Staff prepare and serve an average of 1,900 catered meals each month.
The hospital has 400 permanent staff with an
average 250 staff members working around-the-clock on any given day. According to Gilman, having a full-service
lunch area, which is open Sunday through Friday, and the Neon Café, gives staff
and families of patients a couple of healthy options without leaving the
hospital campus.
“One of the most important thing we do at
the Neon Cafe is provide the hardworking healthcare staff a break and a
nutritious meal,” she said.
