USF students are hungry for new dining options at Pinnacle Hall

Before their closure, Pinnacle Hall’s BurgerFi and Starbucks were some of the best parts of living on campus. ORACLE GRAPHIC/COLE ABRUZZESE

When I moved into Endeavor Hall in fall 2025, the thing I was perhaps most excited about was the BurgerFi and Starbucks locations in the neighboring Pinnacle Hall.

The promised convenience of having these dining options right outside my door — including BurgerFi, a childhood favorite of mine — seemed too good to be true. In a sense, it was.

Upon moving in, I was crushed to discover that both locations had closed over the previous summer.

The restaurants closed as a result of USF switching dining providers from Aramark — who independently leased and managed both locations — to Chartwells earlier that June.

Both dining spaces remain unused, but USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said the school’s development partners are “continuing to work on options” for what could move into the location.

So, while waiting for the school to figure out those options, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to see added to the location.

The old Pinnacle Hall restaurants — BurgerFi and Starbucks — are sorely missed, but there’s thankfully no shortage of options to take their place.

My personal choice for a replacement restaurant is Sus Hi Eatstation.

Sus Hi is a smaller franchise with about half a dozen locations throughout Florida, including one by the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave, according to its website.

The restaurant serves a variety of Japanese food such as Hand Rolls, Chicken Tempura Bowls and — if you’re willing to look past the concept — Sushi Burritos.

I love Sus Hi for the quality of its food, but the main reason I think it’d be a great choice for a new on-campus restaurant is because of its hours.

The restaurant stays open notably late — until 2 a.m. from Wednesday to Sunday — according to its website.

Many of USF’s dining locations have been criticized for closing unreasonably early, so adding more late-night options would help address those complaints.

And a late-night option seems particularly well-suited for Pinnacle Hall, as it and the surrounding Village residence halls are always bustling with students until well past midnight.

The convenience of grabbing a quick midnight snack after the rest of campus has closed makes Sus Hi one of my top picks for the next on-campus restaurant.

Other dream picks are the aptly titled Chicken Salad Chick — which has actually been at USF before at the Marshall Student Center’s Bay Features — and burger chain Five Guys.

Both of these restaurants currently have locations in the University Collection shopping center near campus.

But I know I’m not the only one who’s mourning the Pinnacle Hall restaurants, so I also asked other USF students what they’d like to see added.

Makenzie Estabrook is a junior marketing major who currently works as a resident assistant in Pinnacle Hall and has lived on campus since coming to USF.

Although this is Estabrook’s first year living specifically in Pinnacle Hall, she said she’s frequented its two restaurants “pretty often” in previous semesters and has missed them since their closures.

“It’s mildly disappointing living in Pinnacle but not having what is arguably the building’s best feature,” she said.

Estabrook said she would like to see Dunkin’ as a more “affordable” coffee option compared to Starbucks, and the burger chain Shake Shack as a potential replacement for BurgerFi.

Meanwhile, Yasir Hussain, a sophomore computer engineering major, said he appreciated the Pinnacle Hall restaurants for providing a change of scenery from the other on-campus dining locations.

“It was good to have restaurants that weren’t concentrated at the Marshall Student Center,” he said.

Hussain said he would like to see an international restaurant move into Pinnacle Hall.

“Because of how many international students we have at USF, something that serves international cuisine would be a good addition,” Hussain said.

With the recent addition of the Halal Sababa Bites Food Truck at Sessums Mall, there’s definitely demand for more international food options on campus.

And there’s a ton of fantastic international restaurants in the Temple Terrace area that would make great additions to on-campus dining — such as Vietnamese from Pho Quyen and Mexican from Don Juan’s Grill.

But, really, any of the suggested ideas would be great and feel right at home with the old Pinnacle Hall restaurants.

“I think they [were] such a great resource for Village students, especially as this is a massive area for residential life and specifically freshmen with dining dollars,” Estabrook said.

So, no matter what ends up moving in, I’m just hoping Village residents will soon have access to that convenience again.

There is one exception, though — let’s just pray it doesn’t become a third Subway. That’s really the last thing we need.

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