Welcome to campus dining! You have probably already been wowed by the stir-fry section of Usdan and the ever-present ice cream cart, but once you get sick of pizza and fries for every meal, take some time to explore the other options on campus that are based in dining halls. While you are unfortunately stuck on a large amount of meals, there are many places around campus that will gladly accept your points. Explore, enjoy, and don’t use all your precious points in the first two weeks.
WesWings (in the back of 156 High St.; just follow the stream of upperclassmen)
With a menu based mostly around wings, burgers, and chicken sandwiches, it is no wonder this facility has become the fundamental food provider of most sports teams and upperclassmen too lazy to cook for themselves. Open for lunch and dinner (and brunch during the weekend,), the order-at-the-counter restaurant has a vast array of desserts (including cookie dough) and a build-your-own sandwich option. With recently expanded vegetarian and vegan alternatives, including seitanic wings and veggie burgers, WesWings is trying to cater beyond the wings crew. Daily specials are often the most popular meals and cost the most points, varying from pasta dishes to rib platters to the daily gourmet salad. Keep an eye out for Lobsterfest before final exams when students can purchase a lobster for around 25 points. Check out the specials at weswings.com. Guaranteed to eat all your points within the first month.
Red and Black Café (Broad Street Books)
This café is operated and owned by Karen Kaffen and Ed Thorndike ’89, who also owns WesWings. The café, which is located in the back of the campus book store, offers an array of sandwiches and salads, as well as four or five daily hot options which range from burritos to pulled pork. It’s mostly a popular site with the lorise/hirise crew due to proximity or bookstore dwellers. It’s worth the trek down Williams Street, so check it out for lunch one day.
Pi Café (Exley Center)
Long the hot spot for the early morning science crowd looking for a buzz before class, Pi Café serves bagels, sandwiches, coffee, and gourmet coffee drinks from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. The 8:30 a.m. breakfast rush can be a little bit hectic, but the café is a great space to meet up with friends, work on homework, and grab a bite to eat on your way through campus.
Weshop (In between Westco 1 and 2)
The campus mini-grocery store somehow manages to stuff everything you could ever want into a room the size of a Butts triple. With shelves stocked with a variety of food items to satisfy both carb-crazy jocks and gourmet foodies, there is an option for everyone. If they don’t have what you are looking for, you can even request it on a white board in the back. While the food is sometimes overpriced and the weekend hours are pretty inconvenient (2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday), the product selection will allow your cooking expedition to flourish and blossom into an expensive gourmet adventure. Also, check out the candy bins in the back.
Star and Crescent (Alpha Delt)
The first three freshmen at each meal eat free!! This last sentence is the most important piece of information in this entire copy of the Argus. The Star and Crescent Eating Club, located in the dining hall of Alpha Delta Phi, employs a full-time chef to cook lunch and dinner Monday through Friday. Most popular meals range from Thai red curry to macaroni and cheese. The meals of the week are posted on Wesleying, and make sure to get to each meal early because it often sells out and results in a stampede to get a place at the tables.
Espwesso (Basement of Allbritton)
After having successfully completed its premier year, this student-run late-night café has become a godsend for night owls and coffee fiends. After a generous donation from Politico founder Robert Allbritton ’92, and steady work from the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), the café opened last fall with a full coffee bar menu including lattes made with milk from a local farm. The café is open Sunday through Thursday, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. so as not to compete with Pi Café.