By Matt Csakai | Contributor
When the LaRita Boren Campus Center opened last year, I believe we all expected an improvement in food as well as amenities. But, while some things are better at the Campus Center-such as a Chick-fil-A and a pizza place with pretty good pizza-food services took away so much of what made the Grille great: its choices, its variety and its atmosphere.
There were so many options at the Grille that were so different from the everyday things you can get at the DC. The Grille had chicken tenders, tender wraps, quesadillas, more ready-made sandwiches and other options for people on the go. The side options were also substantially better, with specialty soups being an option, along with pita chips and other items that could be found nowhere else on campus.
But the biggest travesty has to be the grinder sandwiches that the Grille offered. That was the best food I have ever had on campus, bar none. It is shocking to me that there's been no attempt to bring them back and that they haven't reappeared since the day the Grille officially closed.
The atmosphere in the old Union was also better than that in the Campus Center. I am very much a people person, so it's not the amount of people that can fit in the Campus Center that's a problem. It just lacks the same homey feeling that the Grille had. The old Union felt like a much cozier building in and of itself than the Campus Center does. It felt like a place where everyone knew each other. It was a place in which I would actually want to do homework, because, while it could get boisterous at times, it was a place people wanted to be, not just a huge space.
The new Campus Center feels so impersonal, with very boring walls and nothing to make it feel like it belongs to Taylor. Like the DC (but unlike the Grille), the Campus Center's dining area has big tables that are very spread out. Even if you separate those big tables into smaller ones, it's not the same. The Grille had a coffee-shop feeling; it was a place where you could either do work or relax and spend time with people.
I cannot say that, as of yet, I've had the desire to go to the Campus Center to relax. My times there have been out of necessity, not because I've wanted to visit. The Chapel is wonderful, and beautifully done, but the rest of the building is missing the same welcoming feeling presented by the Chapel or old Union. I hope Taylor can take steps to make it feel more like a home-more than simply another campus building.
