Whatever Happened to … Adele’s?
For Decades, What’s Now Panera Was a UMD Dining Institution
At the upscale casual restaurant Adele's, Terps of the '90s, '00s and '10s spent their excess dining points on Maryland-inspired fare. Adele's closed in 2018; Panera now operates in the space.
Adele’s photo courtesy of University Archives; Panera photo by Riley Sims Ph.D. ’23
Leftovers wrapped in a tin-foil swan. A plate of toasted ravioli swimming in marinara sauce. A hedonistic pile of ice cream melting over a bed of warm brownies, topped with caramel, bananas, whipped cream and sprinkles, and served in a University of Maryland-emblazoned goblet.
For Gen X and millennial Terps, these were hallmarks of Adele’s, the sit-down restaurant that operated on the first floor of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, in the spot that now houses Panera. From 1993 until 2018, Adele’s served Maryland-influenced American cuisine to members of the UMD community looking for something a touch more upscale than the stir-fry station at the South Campus Dining Hall.
Adele’s, as Terps of the Y2K era knew it, was the latest stage of a culinary evolution that began in the 1970s, when Dining Services opened the Tortuga Room in the Stamp. It filled a vacancy in UMD’s dining ecosystem at the time: a full-service restaurant, offering beer and wine, that was open to the entire Maryland community. (The drinking age then was 18.)
But it also got stuck in the ’70s, with wood paneling, dark lighting and plaid upholstered benches.
“Eventually, we decided that we wanted to make it a little more trendy,” now-retired interim director of Dining Services Joe Mullineaux said.
So in 1983, the Tortuga Room, which was located in what’s now the food court on the ground floor of the Stamp, became What’s Your Beef, a spin on the then-popular chain of steakhouses called Beefsteak Charlie’s. (A carafe of wine at What’s Your Beef went for 25 cents, said Mullineaux.)
After What’s Your Beef was cooked past well done, the space was reinvented in 1990 as an Italian restaurant, Umberto’s. Gradually, the team in the kitchen started introducing Maryland-y dishes to the menu of Italian classics; soon, the demand for crab cakes and the like surpassed the appetite for lasagna, so Dining Services headed full-steam in the direction of the Old Line State for inspiration.
With white shipboard siding and brick walls suggesting a historic, Chesapeake Bay theme, Adele’s was born in 1993. Over the years, the menu offered crab pretzels, a creamy, crabby Chesapeake alfredo pasta and Smith Island Cake, the many-layered yellow cake with chocolate frosting that is the state’s official dessert.
In 2002, the restaurant moved from its tight quarters downstairs to the airier enclave on the first floor. “From cramped to cozy, Adele’s Restaurant in the Student Union has transformed into a trendy, four-star place to dine,” wrote The Diamondback that year. “Couches are arranged around a fireplace, black-and-white photos adorn the lavender and pale green walls, and unique sculptures create an artsy atmosphere in a once-drab restaurant.”
Maybe most importantly, a bank of windows offered a view of North Campus—and sunlight. “It was so wonderful,” said Bart Hipple, assistant director of marketing and communications for Dining Services, who managed Umberto’s and Adele’s in the early years. “Before, we looked out on a busy hallway.”
Back in the days before Anytime Dining, Adele’s became the place to go for students who needed to use up their Dining Points before the end of the semester.
The restaurant became especially beloved for its signature dessert, the 12-scoop sundae known as the Trough, which came in a glass cup that diners could take home. Some Terps found creative uses for the vessel. “One semester, we thought it would be fun to get about 20 of these,” wrote one Terp on Reddit. “Prior to Comcast Center (now Xfinity Center), there was a huge parking lot called Lot 4, which was WAY the hell off campus. Welp, we set up 10 troughs as pins, and did some asphalt bowling.”
Adele’s also did themed menus. One semester, a road trip focus saw the kitchen staff crafting special menus inspired by a different state’s cuisine each week. “We were doing Wisconsin once, and had fried cheese curds, and all these people from Wisconsin showed up for it,” said Mullineaux.
On the hundredth anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, Adele’s created a dinner menu including lobster thermidor, based on the dishes served to the ship’s first-class passengers on the night of the disaster. (Lunch that day was styled on the more modest steerage menu.)
After all-you-care to-eat Anytime Dining debuted in Fall 2016, Adele’s business plummeted. It closed in 2018 and was vacant until the much-anticipated Panera moved in last semester.
There’s still a touch of Adele’s in Panera. Its initial ground-floor location had a fireplace that was original to Stamp’s 1954 construction. That was moved during Adele’s relocation and stayed during the transition to Panera.
“We feel like we’re carrying on some of Adele’s traditions,” said Mullineaux.
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