A couple of weeks ago, during a break from class, my growling stomach led me to the Upper Crust “restaurant” in the CJ building at Loyola campus. This despite the fact that I knew the only source of food in the near vicinity was overpriced, under-stocked and was a constant source of complaint among journalism students. I grabbed one of only two sandwiches left and, as I walked away, I heard the cashier turn to her colleague and say with bewilderment in her voice, “that girl just paid $6 for a sandwich!” I had, but what choice did I have?
The Loyola campus is a beautiful one. It rivals McGill’s. The only difference is we’re stuck in the middle of N.D.G. without much of anything around, especially in terms of restaurants. The only notable building is a high school across the street. Great, can I go and steal food from their cafeteria?
Last year the Upper Crust had a decent variety of food. Good sandwiches, a lot of beverages and cookies that some students still talk about today. Today, if you were to walk by during opening hours, you’d be lucky to see a couple of sandwiches, (literally, only two) some coffee cups and a few bags of chips are the only suggestions of what actual food might look like.
And if you happen to walk by later than 2:30 p.m., all you’ll see is a metal grate protecting a dark room. Why bother protecting the place when one of the only things to potentially steal is an overpriced, stale salad?
Last week I decided the perfect cure to the cold weather would be a hot chocolate. As I shelled out $1.58 the employee handed me a pouch of hot chocolate powder and pointed the hot water canister. My hot chocolate required assembly! Where was I, Ikea?
The sign next to Upper Crust reads “we are renovating. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by these works.” Normally I am very easy-going about these things. Sure I’ll excuse the construction mess. I will, that is, when there is construction going on. The sign should actually read “we apologize for the blatant lack of anything resembling consumable food. Have you tried the cafeteria in the high school across the street?”
To make matters worse, the logo on the sign reads Chartwells. This is the monopolistic university caterer that has already invaded Universit
