Food and Drink
From Duke Wiki
Students have a love-hate relationship with Food and Drink at Duke. Options for dining are relatively limited on campus, and the quality of the food that is available varies a great deal. It has become almost a right of passage for every Duke student to leave their tastebuds at the door to the Marketplace and sojourn to at least one feast at the Washington Duke each year.
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[edit] Freshman Year and East Campus Dining
All freshman are locked into a freshman meal plan. Though the details have changed over the years (if you know the details please add them!), the university's stated goal has always been to promote a sense of comraderie among first-year students on East Campus. For many years, under the management of Aramark the quality of the food in the Marketplace (the cafeteria where freshman are required to take roughly 80% of their meals) declined. The 2005-2006 election for DSG President centered on the issue, after a fifth-straight no-confidence vote in Aramark carried.
The Marketplace offers three square meals a day, and certain items are carried at all meals, and at all meals of the same type (i.e. every breakfast, or every dinner)
Milk (dairy, lactaid, and Soy), Soda (coke products), a variety of juices (apple, grape, cranberry) and coffee (regular and decaf) are always available. Enterprising students sneak vast quantities out of the marketplace for storage in their dorm rooms. Fruit is also always available. The marketplace also features a wall of roughly 10 different cereals at every meal, though the particular cereals available rotate.
Breakfast always has an omelette bar available, along with scrambled eggs, bagels and toast. Dinner always has hamburgers, pizza, and a salad bar open to students. Both breakfast and dinner are served in an all-you-can-eat cafeteria style.
Lunch is served on a pay-per-item basis and always features a deli-style sandwich bar.
[edit] Sophomore Year and the West Campus Experience
The West Union building, which runs up and adjacent to the Plaza forms the gastral center of the campus. Subway (sandwiches), The Loop (homestyle grill), and The Great Hall (cafeteria) comprise its variety of dining accomadations from the Plaza side, while the Alpine Bagel and Vending Machines are available from The Chapel side. On the second floor, in the Mary Lou Williams Center, resides the mysterious Faculty Commons which is not open to students unless accompanied by a faculty member.
The Bryan Center houses another set of choices for students. On the lower levels are a McDonalds (fast food), Armadillo Grill (Mexican) and the Alpine Atrium coffee shop. Students can also buy snacks at the vending machines or in the Lobby Shop.
In the research quadrangle, off of Science Drive there are two restaurants. The Levine Science Research Center house the Blue Express, which serves lunch in a higher-quality cafeteria arrangement. CIEMAS houses Twinnies on the lower floor, which serves gourmet sandwiches and coffee shop fair.
Tommy's Rubs & Grubs forms the final major dining attraction available to students on West, serving North Carolina Barbeque and other fried favorites.
[edit] Criticisms
Students have a penchant for criticizing the dining options available on west campus. Most students confine their dinner dining to the three restaurants near The Plaza - The Loop, the Armadillo Grill, and The Great Hall. Though students in Edens also frequent Tommy's. The reason for these limitations are obvious when one considers that the other on-campus eateries are either fast-food restaurants or coffee-shops, or only open for lunch. Thus, the debate over which of the amazing variety of restaurants on west to attend often devolves into a choice between not-so-stellar cafeteria food, Mexican, or a burger.
[edit] Junior/Senior Year
Students in the Junior and Senior years have considerably more flexibility in choosing their dining options on campus. (If you know something about eating at duke as a Junior or Senior please share it.)
[edit] Ninth Street
Ninth Street is home to about a dozen restaurants ranging from Cosmic Cantina to I Love Manhattan Pizza. Freshman usually eat on Ninth about once or twice each week since the street is only a block off East Campus. Upperclassmen eat there with less frequency, since the trek is rather long and generally requires a car. Students with cars generally go slightly farther off campus to places like Southpoint
[edit] Southpoint
If you know anything about Southpoint, please add a little blurb.
[edit] New Central Plans
Plans for the new central campus include talk of expanding the dining venues of campus, though specifics are not yet available.
