Author: Renae Rykaczewski and Kayla Schott-Bresler
Picture this: all day, you’ve been dreaming about enjoying an ice cold Fat Tire from the Coffee Table and a luscious red velvet cupcake from Auntie Em’s. You’ve been working overtime at the Cooler to pay for this Friday afternoon indulgence. You push open the glass doors to the Coffee Table and inhale the sweet bistro aroma. Stepping up to the counter you proudly display your real, state-issued Alaskan drivers license and order your long awaited lager. The cashier vacantly stares at your ID and gives you an inquisitive look before she issues the devastating words that you never saw coming:
“We don’t accept out-of-state ID’s.”
You step back, reeling from this verbal blow. “What?” you ask. “This is a legal ID. I go to Oxy.” Still no dice. “What’s next, demanding a national ID card?”
Rejected but not ready to surrender all hope for a pleasurable afternoon, you head over to Auntie Em’s for your cupcake. You glance at your watch as you enter the eatery. 7:04 p.m. Uh oh, you’re four minutes late. Looking around, you see 30 other patrons enjoying their meals and one lonesome, perfectly frosted, velvety cupcake glistening in that wooden framed display case. Your mouth waters. You ask the cashier if you can purchase it to-go, but once again obstacles stand in your way.
“We’ve already closed the register. We’re not selling any cupcakes.”
Devastated and broken, you drag yourself back to your room and expire from hunger and unsatisfied desire while pondering your exhausting and eye-opening experience.
At the Coffee Table, it’s all rules and no slack for college students. Their generally unfriendly and stickler staff won’t even give you a break and let you order off of the kids’ menu. Nor will they budge on their no out-of-state ID’s rule. It is an unsettling and inflexible environment where Oxy students are clearly not valued as customers.
Auntie Em’s emphasis on sustainable and seasonal ingredients fosters a lot of hope for a non-corporate and community-based eating experience. However, the on-site dining experience does not reflect a commitment to being a locally-owned and customer-oriented small business. Repeated episodes of bad customer service leave a nasty taste in our mouths that even a steak salad can’t neutralize. The fact that Auntie Em’s won’t sell you a cupcake if it’s four minutes past closing reflects the low value they place on Oxy students as customers. Auntie Em’s seems to be catering more to reviewers and the hipsters from Silver Lake than the Eagle Rock community that nurtured it to its current success.
The high prices at these two Eagle Rock eating establishments don’t seem to dissuade Oxy students from patronizing them. These places are serving a college community, with Oxy students comprising a major portion of their customer base, yet they still charge unreasonably high prices for someone on a college budget. Judging by employee morale, these high prices don’t seem to be going toward higher employee salaries either. The Marketplace menu can get monotonous (don’t get us started on the prices there) and everyone needs an excuse to get off campus and enjoy a nice meal. Still, we cannot keep supporting these “bougie” restaurants. We’ll go broke. We might tolerate such high prices if the customer service was on par with Dave’s Chillin’ and Grillin’ or Pat and Lorraine’s.
Instead, we’re proposing some friendly, fresh and cheap alternatives. If you’ve taken your Econ 101, you know that customers drive prices, and we as a student body have the power to influence prices at our local restaurants. Well, maybe not Auntie Em’s, where the perimeter is filled with the expensive gas-guzzling SUV’s of their cupcake addicted customers. Check out the client list on the Auntie Em’s website-they’re catering to a multinational corporate clientele. Oh, and the Pussycat Dolls. Still, by patronizing these alternatives, you can send the message that you will no longer tolerate being neglected as a consumer base.
So here are some other local options that you should definitely check out, if you haven’t already, after sub-par experiences at the Coffee Table and Auntie Em’s:
1. Brownstone Pizza (2108 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock)Brownstone lets you bring in your own wine from the next-door Colorado Wine Company with no corkage fee. They are incredibly friendly and anxious to have a positive presence in the community and cater to Oxy students. They offer an Oxy lunch special: $6.99 for two slices of pizza, a salad and a drink.
2. Jerry’s Mexican Grill (4923 Eagle Rock Blvd., “Super A Shopping Center,” Eagle Rock)The best of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only do Jerry’s breakfast burritos provide that much needed boost on a Sunday morning, but they’re delicious all day long! Jerry’s has great food and cheap prices. You can get a huge burrito for $4. Just as importantly, they’re friendly and fast.
3. Lemongrass (1952 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock)Lemongrass Vietnamese has lunch specials under $6 and tons of dinner options under $10. Their staff is incredibly friendly and their food is spectacular. Word on the street is they’re opening a yogurt shop next door, too.
4. Panang (1801 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock)Although the atmosphere is a little tacky, Panang has surprisingly tasty Thai food with dinners under $10. They also have free delivery.
5. La Casa Blue (5930 York Blvd., Highland Park)La Casa Blue coffee shop and bar is a great alternative to the Coffee Table. It’s hip and has great food at affordable prices. If you ask for a glass of water, they ask if you’d like sparkling or still, with or without a lime slice, no charge. La Casa Blue has beat the long awaited Coffee Table Lounge to the punch, as they already have live bands and an overflowing crowd on Friday nights.
A warning to Spitz: We love your food, but if you don’t stop your price gouging, we’re coming for you next. Let’s be honest-döner costs like 50 cents in Europe.
Renae Rykaczewski is a senior ECLS major. She can be reached at rykaczewski@oxy.edu.
Kayla Schott-Bresler is a junior History major. She can be reached at kschott-bres@oxy.edu.
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