All these new eats are making me hungry

I remember my first semester at Tech-summer 2001. I was living on East Campus, and Brittain Dining Hall was closed for renovation.

Since I didn’t have a car at the time, I didn’t have many choices for places to eat that were within walking distance. There was Junior’s Grill and Quizno’s, but Junior’s was closed after lunch, and I got bored of Quizno’s after a while.

There was also the Student Center Food Court, but it was also only open for lunch, and it did not have as many choices as it does now. There were some options for delivery food, and, if you got desperate, there were always the ever-present vending machines.

Fast forward three years to summer 2004. We now have Italian at Pandini’s (my favorite), Asian food at Tin Drum, Mexican at Moe’s, Ribs and Blues, St. Charles Deli and more. And, excitingly, there are more choices to come.

Einstein’s is opening in the Student Center Commons this fall, which will provide us with more breakfast choices.

Tech Square will also be featuring some new venues as well: Khao, an international food market, is scheduled to open soon, along with a Mediterranean restaurant, Great Wraps and some other choices. H2O Cafe for the health-conscious is opening at the Campus Recreation Center in the fall as well, and a new Jake’s ice cream is scheduled to open at Tech Plaza during this summer.

Even Woodruff, Brittain and the Food Court, with their recent renovations, have expanded and include more choices than ever before. The dining halls also offer more variation in meal plans than before, since you can choose from the Gold, White, Blue, Casual or West Side plan.

And, if you still insist on delivery, you can now go to www.campusfood.com for online ordering and delivery from eight to 10 restaurants within the vicinity of campus.

So much for my shameless publicizing of all the new eateries. The real question is: are all these new restaurants really a good thing, in terms of improving student life on campus?

Or is Tech getting too commercialized from the opening of fast food chains that just want to make a profit and don’t care about the students?

I would argue that we are better off than before. It used to be that students would have the problem of not being able to find places to eat their favorite type of food.

Soon, though, students will have a far more attractive problem: one of having too many places to choose from. Our dining halls do a great job, but even freshmen could do with eating out every once in a while. Sure, it’s easy to hate on fast food chains for being unhealthy, but people eat at chains outside of campus anyway, so why should we avoid them on campus?

In fact, I would venture to say that there is still a need for more places to open up on campus. For example, there is still not an Indian food place near campus. With such a large Indian student population, it’s a sure bet that this would be a popular location. And I’m also sure even students who are not Indian would enjoy the taste of chicken curry with naan or some tasty samosas.

Even the Food Court could be open late for dinner. I had a friend come to Tech recently and he was extremely surprised that our Food Court closed after lunch. I’m sure this is something that has been discussed before, but if it would be possible to keep the Food Court open, that would be another great option for students to eat, socialize and study (sometimes).

Another issue that must be dealt with, with all these new restaurants, is expanding the use of BuzzCards as methods of payment.

Except for Ribs N’ Blues, most of the near-campus locations don’t accept Buzzcards. Though this is something for the restaurant owners and the BuzzCard Center to sort out, this should be promoted as an option, since sales are almost guaranteed to be boosted if BuzzCards are accepted.

As Tech continues in its effort to improve campus and enhance the standard of student life, the easier they make it for students to manage non-class-related issues, the happier students will be.

Of course, students would be happier if classes got easier, too...but that’s a topic for another time.