UNH Dairy Bar a stop worth whistling for

Rave

July 03, 2011|By David Lyon, Globe Correspondent

Specializing in the meal called ice cream, the UNH Dairy Bar stays busy. (PATRICIA HARRIS FOR THE…)

DURHAM, N.H. - You have to wonder how many students choose the University of New Hampshire because the campus has its own passenger rail station. And if they come by Amtrak to scout the school, the station’s resident restaurant, the UNH Dairy Bar, probably clinches the deal.

The yellow-brick Beaux-Arts building was constructed as the Lynn, Mass., station around 1895 and was moved to Durham by the B&M Railroad in 1911. In 1960, the railroad sold the station to UNH for $1. Five years later, the Dairy Bar moved in, providing a retail presence for milk and ice cream produced by the university’s agriculture school.

The dairy products are no longer generated on campus, but there is still a strong local flavor. The amazingly rich (14 percent butterfat) ice cream comes from Blake’s Creamery in Manchester, established in 1900. The Dairy Bar carries more than two dozen flavors. Most of the cheese hails from Cabot in Vermont, most of the eggs and bacon from regional farms. And in the summer, the fruits and vegetables in the salads, soups, and sandwiches are harvested from fields barely beyond the campus.

Under the university’s Dining Services, the Dairy Bar operates as an exemplar of green practices (even the plastic utensils can be composted). Management also has an uncanny sense of taste preferences among 18- to 22-year-olds, like, for instance, a whole-wheat chocolate peanut butter sandwich with sliced bananas followed by a scoop of blackberry chip frozen yogurt.

DAVID LYON

UNH Dairy Bar Durham/UNH Station, 3 Depot Road, Durham, N.H., 603-862-1006, www.unh.edu/dairy-bar. Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat-Sun 11-6 (closes at 4 mid-October-late March). Soups, salads, and sandwiches $2.99-$5.99, ice cream $1.79-$5.49.