An expansion of the University of Memphis dining system means students can now buy a Sammie and Slammie at Ubee's Restaurant & Bar with their Tiger Funds.
Anything on the menu at the Highland Strip restaurant is fair game for this new type of payment besides the alcohol, according to owner Kendall Robertson.
"This will give students an opportunity to eat somewhere besides on campus," Robertson said. "On top of that, we're open until 3 a.m., and I don't think there are many on-campus options open that late."
The college-friendly atmosphere has served as a popular place for students to eat and hangout since it's opening in 2007.
Upon opening, the company tried multiple times to reach out to the U of M about starting a system that would allow students to use school funds to buy their food. After multiple attempts to get in touch with the University, Ubee's request was taken into consideration when the school agreed to partner with the restaurant this year.
In order to use these funds as a form of payment, a student must set up a Tiger Funds account. Once activated, a student's campus-card will act like a debit card. Students are allowed to make deposits into their Tiger Funds account at any time.
Ubee's is one of three off-campus restaurants that now accept Tiger Funds as a form of payment. The other two are Domino's Pizza at 550 S Highland St. and Garabaldi's Pizza at 3530 Walker Ave.
Many restaurants in the university area applied to accept Tiger Funds as a form of payment but only a few were chosen, according to Robertson.
"They [the University] didn't want to start off too big because they wanted to see how well it goes first," he said.
Robertson owns many well-known restaurants around Memphis, and most recently bought Café Ole.
Ubee's announced the new way of payment on its Twitter page Tuesday afternoon. The tweet received more than 50 retweets and 25 favorites, mostly from college students.
"We had over 400 replies to the tweet within minutes," Robertson said. "I didn't expect it to get so much publicity so fast."
Tiger Funds will be accepted on dine-in and take-out orders only. Eventually, the funds will also be able to be used on delivery orders.
Ubee's employees plan to spread the word by making stickers to put around different places promoting Tiger Funds.
