In an attempt to create a central meeting place for off-campus and transfer students, Dudley House last night embarked on a new food plan designed to bring more of the house members to Lehman Hall for meals.

"The Dudley House members and transfer students needed a place to socialize and create a sense of a community," said Dudley House Committee Co-Chairman Lee D. Cranmer III '88. "The service is secondary."

The new dining hall comes in response to last year's survey, which revealed that a significant number of Dudley House members wanted a central gathering place specifically for students living off-campus, Cranmer said.

The dining hall facilities are available to members of Dudley House who choose to purchase meal contracts, said Frank Weisbecker, director of the Harvard Food Services.

The hall does not provide a salad bar, but will serve the same entrees as do the residential Houses except for a few additional items cooked on an already existing grill, Weisbecker said.

Dudley students will have the option to buy new variable meal plans, which currently include only dinner and lunch, Cranmer said. Students who want breakfast will continue to pay in cash or in coupons bought from the Food Service.

Up to 25 non Dudley undergraduates will be able to eat interhouse each meal. In the past, members of the residential houses could not eat at Dudley because of space limitations.

As of Monday evening, 165 meal contracts had been purchased, five more than the number required for the dining hall to break even, Cranmer said.

After the first dinner last night, Dudley House Master Arthur L. Loeb '45 said he felt the first meal had been "quite successful" and that so far there had been no problems.

Students eating at the hall said that except for the absence of a salad bar they were happy with the new addition.

"The choice of entrees was good, and I got as much as I wanted," said Keith Moon, a first-year graduate student in Soviet Studies. "I think we definitely got our money's worth."