Leaving the grill and soup stations looking lonely, students eagerly lined up last night at Josiah's to order salads from the long-awaited Cutting Board.
The Cutting Board, which took the place of the deli, is a salad bar that has been in the works for several months, Josiah's Manager and Director of Retail Dining Operations Jacques LaRue told The Herald.
Prior to the Cutting Board's debut, Jo's menu lacked healthy options, LaRue said. "The food was good but not necessarily healthy," LaRue said. "We needed healthy options."
Creating a salad station was not just for health reasons, he added. "It was also to do something new."
With three types of greens - baby spinach, mesclun mix and romaine - 26 toppings, ten premium toppings, 11 dressings, the option of chopped or tossed and the option of a bowl or a wrap, the station's create-your-own salad feature provides plenty of variety, said LaRue. The menu boasts 965,250 combinations. Most diners chose to have the salad bowl instead of the wrap.
On top of the $5.75 base charge, at $.75 for each topping and $1.25 for each premium topping, students' salads can get pricy quickly. Toppings include bacon bits, black bean salsa, feta, cheddar and parmesan cheeses and lo mein noodles and, for diners willing to shell out more, premium toppings include sun-dried tomatoes, snow peas, smoked turkey and grilled chicken.
"It's upsetting that it's not less than a meal credit but I like that there's a lot of choice," said Mike Johnson '11, while waiting for his salad.
Six "featured" salads - Caesar, Greek, Cobb, Chef, Santa Fe and Asian - range from $6.25 to $6.75.
Student reviews of the salads were mostly positive. "It's pretty good," Ambika Roos '11 said. "I appreciate the fact that they're trying something new." Those who chose to try something new last night usually got their salads four to five minutes after ordering them.
The Cutting Board was a "joint venture between (the Undergraduate Council of Students) and Dining Services," said Brian Becker '09, who worked on the project when he was UCS's campus life chair last year.
"Who doesn't want to create their own salads?" he asked.
