Spirits — meaning moods, not magical creatures from the wizarding world of Harry Potter — were high on Feb. 19 at AVI’s first themed dinner, which took place during normal dinner hours and served dishes inspired by J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular book series. Though some tour guides like to claim that Hogwarts’ dining hall was based off of Kenyon’s own Old Side, the Great Hall was completely transformed into its fictional counterpart for the event, while the night’s dinner and dessert menus were modified to reflect the Harry Potter theme.
On Old Side, colorful runners lined the tables, each meant to represent one of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Banners with each house’s symbol hung from Old Side’s stately fireplace. Positioned near the hall’s soaring windows, a screen displayed clips from Harry Potter movies that students watched as they snacked on Sorting Hat cupcakes and sipped butterbeer, which had been distributed at a table in the Borden Atrium. The entrees were themed, too, featuring foods such as Forbidden Forest Wild Rice, Butterbeer Glazed Carrots and specialty pizzas such as the Hufflepuff “Harvest” Pizza and Ravenclaw “Wisdom” Pizza.
AVI staff and students alike embraced the theme: Several donned the elegant cloaks worn by Potter and his peers in the movies, while others sported his signature round glasses. At the start of dinner hours, the dining hall was notably more populated than it tends to be at that time, and attendees’ cheer and excitement were palpable as they sampled the themed offerings and took in the decor.
“Great Hall — everyone calls that the Harry Potter room, and everyone talks about it. And I’ve been trying to do a lot more pop-ups. … I’m trying to do a lot more for the students, because it’s fun to see their reactions to different things we do,” Director of Catering Andrea Scoles said in an interview with the Collegian. “So I thought it would be really cool. And I actually started it off as just a private dinner. It was supposed to be just for 30 students. … And then in the first, like, two hours, my Jotform box was full. … So we decided, let’s open it up to the whole campus so more than just 30 students can come.”
According to Resident Director of AVI Ryan Summers, AVI has talked about hosting themed dinners before, but the Harry Potter dinner was the first it had put on at Kenyon. Scoles added that it will not be the last. “I had thought maybe about doing a Lord of the Rings [dinner]. That right now is very much just a thought. … I don’t know that I’ll be able to fit it in, but we are trying to do more themed things,” she said. “I’m a big holiday person, so St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Easter, definitely going to try and do some themed things for those.”
AVI refers to events like the Harry Potter dinner as “monotony breakers,” which are intended to create excitement among students and shift their routines. “Going into this year, my goal was [to set up a ‘monotony breaker’] once a week. But all the great ideas that I have, and seeing how much the students love it, it’s kind of turned into, like, two or three times a week,” Scoles said. “It gives me something to plan, something to focus on, and … just seeing the students come up like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool,’ makes me happy knowing that I did something, and people love it.”
Among the student body, these “monotony breakers” seem to be much appreciated. Lucas Friedman ’27, who serves as chair of the Housing and Dining Committee, told the Collegian that dining options can sometimes get repetitive. “I would say the perfect word for it is consistent. You kind of know what you’re going to get each day,” Friedman said. “There hasn’t really been any surprises, which I think is both a curse, kind of, and a blessing, because you know what’s going to happen … but I’d say overall, it’s been a positive experience.”
“I think this event, along with others, just adds a little variety, even if the food isn’t entirely different,” Friedman added. “I think it’s nice just to have a change. … I know for the Harry Potter night, there’s going to be a lot of decorations up. The desserts are going to be different … I think the goal is to maybe throw people off, which will be nice, have a little sense of change that I don’t think we get too, too often.”
As Friedman noted, the night’s desserts were specially themed for the event. Students who attended the Harry Potter dinner may have been surprised to learn their own Hogwarts houses upon biting into a Sorting Hat cupcake. For any curious readers, both Scoles and Summers identified themselves as Slytherins. Though Slytherins are known for their wickedness, events like the Harry Potter dinner demonstrate AVI’s dedication to meeting students’ needs, at least according to Friedman. “I’d say recently, they’ve been really making a conscious effort to listen to the voices of the students and get not necessarily what they need, but more so kind of what they want, in terms of having these pop-up things here and there,” he said.