The buzz around campus since the beginning of the semester has been about the diner. When was it going to open? What food will be served there? Are meals accepted there? I was promised this diner during my senior year of high school when I came for orientation. The diner was supposed to be open by the fall of 2005. It did not open until this week. Since I have been waiting for about two years to consume the diner food, I felt it was my duty to be there on the opening day. The verdict? The diner should not have replaced Side Caf.
For the past year, every food worker on campus boasted about the new diner and how great it was going to be. It is the complete opposite.
From the outside, it looks really adorable. Inside, it still has the cuteness factor with the sparkly red chairs, comfy booths and diner stools. That’s how it lures you in. Once you get past the glitz and glamour, you realize that it is still West Chester University food. It is not better or worse than anything else on campus.
Breakfast is available at all hours of the day, which is a plus, but you have to hope that they make it correctly and that they do not forget your order. I went to the diner at 11:00 p.m. one night this past week and my two friends each ordered breakfast. One friend had an omelet, the other had eggs over easy. The omelet was prepared wrong, with all of the extra ingredients not inside the omelet, and the eggs over easy order was lost.
I can understand that it is the first week and they are working out the kinks. But, come on now, the staff had three weeks of waiting for the go-ahead of opening the diner. They could not have practiced during that week of taking down orders and preparing them in a timely manner?
The menu does include Side Caf goodies such as chicken fingers, cheese steaks and the famous wraps, which was why I would go to there. I munched through a wrap while I was at the diner and all I have to say is that if the food crew is going to boast how the wraps are Side Caf wraps, then have the same choices and have the same wrap makers prepare them. My chicken caesar wrap was not folded, which led to everything falling out, the chicken was not chopped up and the lettuce was barely torn. Let’s just say that this writer is pretty depressed.
The food staff is what makes me the most upset. I am sure everyone feels the same way when I say that every food worker on campus has been very cranky lately. Whether you go to Rams Head or Lawrence, the staff has been very unfriendly. Fellow that I have talked to feel like they can not tell the workers if they have a problem with something or simply ask them a question without getting sometype of sarcastic answer in reply with attitude to go along with it. It is not the student’s fault that the diner has not been open and we have only two places to go to eat.
The staff at the diner has a mixture of people. The people who take your order tend to be on the cheerful side, but the cooks are not. There was an instance this week when one of the workers was staring at my friend, the one with the eggs over easy. When my friend said to him “Could you make me my eggs please?” the worker just shrugged her off. This is the type of attitude that we do not need.
So, here is a message to the food employees: it is not our fault that there is nowhere to go. Do not give us attitude if we simply ask a question or comment on something. It is not fair to us who have to live here and have a meal plan to deal with this. You are forcing us to spend our own money on outside food places because of your work ethic.
A message to the University: the next time you decide to make WCU better by adding on additional food places, check with the students first to see if that is what they want. None of us wanted Side Caf closed. You should have saved all of the money you spent on the diner and hired a more pleasant food staff.
Amanda Tingle is a Sophomore at WCU majoring in secondary education.