Soup to nuts

Bravo gets the dish on campus dining

by Larry Woods

Many first-year students suffer the dreaded “Freshman 15,” gaining weight during their first semester in college. Not me. I lost 15, maybe 20 pounds, without really trying. The reason: Furman University food. Maybe Jenny Craig should have packaged that stuff.

I left Furman after my freshman year—not because of the food, although I did have an allergic reaction to some mystery meat that turned out to be oysters—and haven’t had the stomach, er, time to go back in probably 30 years or more. But in 1973, you had three choices: eat at the cafeteria, spend extra cash at the campus grill, or not eat at all, which might have been the best option.

Furman’s dining choices undoubtedly have changed for the better in 35 years. Carolina’s certainly have. The University offers a full menu of more than 24 dining facilities, an international smorgasbord ranging from traditional American burgers and fries to Japanese sushi, Italian pizza, Greek and Mediterranean favorites, and a Mongolian circular grill fit for Kublai Khan.

So, welcome to a tour of Carolina cuisine. My name is Larry, and I’ll be your server today for a look at some of the more recent additions to campus dining.

Many alumni will remember when they couldn’t bring food or drink into Thomas Cooper Library, but today the library has turned over a new leaf. Coopers Corner serves biscuits for breakfast; wraps, salads, tuna plates, and fruit and yogurt; and Starbucks coffee creations all day and late into the night Monday through Wednesday, with shorter hours on Thursday and Friday. “I can’t keep chicken caesar wraps in,” said Shirley Kennedy, lead for the first shift. “They’re a favorite.”

The Barnes & Noble Café, featuring Starbucks coffee, in the Russell House University Bookstore attracts long lines of students between classes looking for a jolt of joe and a place to study with tables both indoors and out. Besides coffee, the café serves wraps and light lunch fare and a killer double chocolate brownie.

Pandinis, across from the University Bookstore, offers upper crust pizzas, pasta, calzones, and strombolis. Their motto: “Old world ambiance with new world flavor.”

Colloquium Café, where the reflecting pool used to be in front of the Humanities Office Building, also serves healthy salads and sandwiches, but the star attraction, in my opinion, is breakfast. In addition to muffins, scones, and glazed croissants, diners can feast on a true Southern favorite: grits.

But not just any ol’ grits. Colloquium offers regular grits, made with water, and hi-test grits, made with chicken stock for added flavor. Topped with a generous helping of cheddar cheese on top and a little salt and black pepper, these grits, to use a Southern expression, will make you ‘slap yo mamma’—out of the way for another bowl.

Seinfeld fans will recognize the life-size cardboard cutout just inside the Grand Market Place. It’s Al Yeganeh, AKA the Soup Nazi, who inspired the character on the show who refused to serve Elaine and uttered four of the most famous words in television sitcom history: “No soup for you!”

Part of a national chain, The Original SoupMan, which opened in March as the first location on a college campus, features seven soups each day from a total of 20 choices, including the well-known lobster and crab bisques and Kramer’s favorite, mulligatawny. The location serves gourmet salads and sandwiches, too.

But you’ll never have to worry about not having your order ready or talking too much—as Elaine did—or not moving to the side after placing your order. The Original SoupMan will always have plenty of the soup “that made Seinfeld famous” for you.

Bon appétit.