The 42 Bistro at Fort Hood will slowly expand toward its full grand opening Feb. 18, 2026. “It’s meeting our soldiers where they are with additional options,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commander of Army Materiel Command. (U.S. Army)
The Army successfully fought “the monster of bureaucracy” to bring to life a privatized dining facility at Fort Hood, Texas, said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commander of Army Materiel Command.
“This has been a three-year journey to get to this point,” Mohan said Monday during a call with reporters. “It’s meeting our soldiers where they are with additional options.”
The journey included the Army getting waivers around federal mandates for contracting and working with a company to develop a dining venue that will focus on soldiers living in the barracks — but also attract others on post.
The Army will only pay the company for meals eaten by soldiers with meal entitlements. Any other revenue will have to come from other soldiers and officers, civilians and family members choosing to eat there.
It all comes as the Army has continually looked to re-create dining facilities as soldiers choose them less often. Bringing in an outside company is seen as a way to offer more options with less strain on Army cooks, which the Army has been enlisting fewer of each year.
Fort Hood’s Black Jack Dining Facility spent several weeks in renovations and is now christened the 42 Bistro. It is operated by Compass Group, a U.K.-based company with a U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., which also manages the feeding of athletes at Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama, according to the Army.
The bistro fed its first soldiers Saturday — a select group of 75 troops — and will slowly expand toward its full grand opening Feb. 18. It will offer three times the operating hours of a traditional dining facility — something soldiers have long requested.
The new facility has a new pay system that will force soldiers who live in the barracks and have meal card entitlements to relearn how to buy food in the dining facilities. However, they now can spend their money on snacks between meals because the facility will remain open all day and feature a grab-and-go section, food truck and smoothie bar. Soldiers can also order ahead and pick up in delivery drop zones.
“It’s the additional things that are going to give the soldiers additional options, again, to meet them where they are,” Mohan said. “Our data shows that a lot of them don’t eat breakfast, but they might want that smoothie for brunch. It’s additional flexibility.”
When soldiers with a meal plan show up at the new bistro, their meal entitlement dollars will be spent as “freedom dollars.” They’ll have $39 spread over the three meals — $9.57 for breakfast, $15.86 for lunch, and $13.57 for dinner. If they spend below the meal’s amount, it will carry over throughout the day but not into the next day. If they spend over, they’ll pay out of pocket, according to AMC.
This means as they select items, soldiers should keep an eye on each price if they want to stay within their budget. However, Mohan said items are “reasonably” priced, and it shouldn’t be an issue.
An omelet at breakfast is $5 and a fresh fruit cup for $2, he said. At lunch, there’s a grilled chicken sandwich with home fries, a side salad, a drink and dessert for $10.50. Two brisket tacos and slaw at the bistro’s food truck will be $9.
The system should also prevent double-dipping, because it is connected to the pay systems of traditional soldier-run dining facilities as well.
“This will be where the chain of command has to really educate them on how this is going to work,” Mohan said.
But to get to this grand opening, there were four main bureaucratic barriers the Army needed to defeat for the contract to be successful.
“This is something that’s so important for our Army,” he said. “Fueling our soldiers — it’s so important to the Army that we cannot get dragged down by the bureaucracy.”
First, the Army waived the requirement for Compass Group to use the Defense Logistics Agency to purchase food. While DLA spends about $3 billion a year on food, Compass spends about $30 billion, he said.
They can leverage that buying power at scale and offer a greater variety of menu options — Mohan estimated the 42 Bistro has 3,000 recipes. It also gives the ability to do smaller contracts with local vendors and for seasonal items at specific locations.
The second waiver allowed for the bistro to have its own dietitian on site — as mandated by the contract — who can make changes to recipes based on locally available ingredients, Mohan said. The facility is also required to have a professional chef manage the operations.
Third, the Army got permission to use products that will allow the bistro to cut costs and workload, such as buying prechopped, prewashed bagged lettuce and potato flakes instead of actual potatoes for mashed potatoes. These recommendations came from the pro-bono advisement of Chef Robert Irvine, a celebrity chef and TV personality.
The Army had been prohibited in the past from using potato flakes, Mohan said.
The final waiver allowed the Army to bypass the 1936 Randolph-Sheppard Act, which prioritizes companies owned by blind people to conduct food and service operations on federal property.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has argued the law has been “manipulated” to prioritize profit.
As part of this first rollout, Compass Group will take over one dining facility at each of four other Army posts as well — Fort Carson, Colo., Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Fort Drum, N.Y.
Fort Carson will be the next to open in March, Mohan said.
A contract is out to privatize dining facilities at training bases overseen by the Army Transformation and Training Command, though they will operate differently because of the distinct mission and regimented meal times of training installations.
Before the Army requests bids for contracts for private operations at other Forces Command bases, it would like to ensure that the waivers will carry into those contracts. Legislation is “in the works” to make them permanent.
Materiel Command also wants to have at least three months of data and use that to inform any changes that need to be made to the next contracts. Moving this concept overseas is going to be challenging, because of host-national agreements, Mohan said.
