The Cooperage

So, I was an employee of «The Coop» back in the heyday, 1981 – 1986. I think I worked there from about 1982 – 1983, met my college love and made, many, many friends. This is what I remember being there as I spent far too many days in every place:
The pizza place: you could hear all sorts of things going on there, the worst was the poor person who got stuck at the oven all shift. I never did ovens, just made the pizzas. There was even a more unenjoyable job, and that was the schmuck who got stuck in the «dough room». Students would come out with every crevace covered in flour, it was just gross — to be stuck in a small, closet like room running dough all day, just the worst!
The salad place: this was my private hell. Altho there wasn’t much work involved helping the people find a salad, there were lots of old veggies in there. Also, for whatever reason, 90% of the brass was here and you had to go thru a super horrible checklist every night using Brasso on everything or some student supervisor (Nazi Youth) would write you up. I got written up A LOT!
The Mexican place: this was the best in my world. The food was freshly made by both the head cooks and the student helpers. Everything was made fresh daily, and you could have burritos, tacos, sometimes enchiladas and deep fried tostadas in the big shells.
The Grill (burgers, dogs, etc.) — nasty to work at and even nastier to eat. Nuff said.
Alcohol — there wasn’t any. UCLA was (and is?) one of the only dry campuses in the UC System. So, addressing someone’s comment here, there was no beer at the pizza place.
What the place did do was create a great work place for those handful of poorer students who needed to work (such as myself). Having the food made onsight create much-​needed jobs and some vocational training that probably didn’t come in much too handy. Having all that outsourced by fast food chains — even if they hire students — removes them from that process: menu, to cooking, to serving, to cleanup. Because ASUCLA used to run The Coop, I’m wondering today what happened.
It’s also really unfortunate that students don’t have a more nutritional place to eat and I’m hoping that the Coop is the only site on campus to have changed to junk food. I ate at the Ronald Regan Hospital many times this summer visiting a friend there, and it was ok, and certainly made on site.
~Ms. Ali

Took my teenaged daughters on a UCLA tour, hoping to inspire their love for my alma mater. Looking for the old Cooperage, I was sadly disappointed to find a sort of food court of fast food restaurants had replaced the awesome coolness of days gone by. During my time (1981 – 84), the Cooperage opened, and it was incredible: super fast, cheap, and outstandingly cheesy pizza, bowling lanes, other food choices, and — if I’m not much mistaken in my memories — pitchers of beer? Maybe I’m wrong on that one. But the pizza — oh, so good! Also, these wonderful elevated booths that were my favorite area to hang out, meet friends, and study! (I liked to study in noise and commotion.) We didn’t see anything so large and open, instead things are divided into areas. A lot was closed, so we couldn’t see if the pizza was still great.
Now the bowling is gone. There are some video and arcade games. The food doesn’t look too exciting, just your standard fast food. One spot looked intriguing, but they were closed (Saturday): Tsunami’s serving noodles and sushi. There was an interesting lounge with comfy chairs and SD big TVs on multiple international channels, I think you use headphones and tune into the right channel to get sound.
I love UCLA, and the vibe and energy are still amazing. Btw, my girls and I had fun getting delicious drinks at Kerkhoff Coffee House nearby on campus — really delicious mocha coffee and Italian sodas.

Oh, the coop. I used to grab a bite here quickly and get the hell out. It seemed like there were never enough chairs. Occasionally they would have bands play which was cool.
It gets 5 stars because I met my husband here.

I visited here, yesterday, as a grumpy old alumnus. When I was a student, the place wasn’t known as The Cooperage; that came later. In the intervening years, it was redecorated, and was pretty good.
Now, it’s been taken over by a variety of chain restaurants, and the new remodel isn’t very pleasant. The food was what you’d expect from chain fast food, and the prices were rather astronomical compared to what I would have paid, thirty years ago.
The only reason we ate on campus was that traffic ran us late. Henceforth, if I’m going to something at UCLA, we leave an hour earlier, and will eat in the village.

It’s where you eat when you are stuck on central campus in between classes. They have Taco Bell, Subs, Athena’s Greek Food & hamburgers.