Mason Dining has had it’s fair share of wins and losses over the past few years concerning restaurant replacements, reopenings and menu reboots. We have a decent amount of options but depending on the day the choices can seem either overwhelming or repetitive. At the beginning of this semester I set out to take advantage of what is offered to us. Also the fact that I changed my meal plan to one that allowed me to vistit more places was a driving force behind my little “experiment”. (Once you go to Freedom you never go back!) Of course, I had eaten at Panera Bread many times before but my visits were typically few and far between. I had my two go-to menu items and I was satisfied. During this week, which mostly created itself out of laziness and repetitive choices I came to some interesting conclusions.
1. My 20 year old self can NOT consume as much bread as I used to be able to. “Chips, apple, or a baguette?” Baguette always wins, as I shamefully break eye-contact.
2. Panera employees are as consistent as can be. Each time I appeared in line a very familiar face would ask me “Do you have a MyPanera card?” In my mind I would want respond, ‘yes, I’ve been here five times in the past 24 hours, you should know my phone number by now.’ But, of course, they’re just doing their job.
3. Speaking of those cards, those rewards really add up! Most people aren’t waiting in the long line in JC twice a day like clockwork like I was, but still if you use your card every time you order will definitely be rewarded when you least expect it. We all want free stuff, we all want food; it’s a win-win.
4. You never really know yourself until there are twenty people in line behind you waiting to make their morning order. You may have come in ten minutes before you class starts planning to order a hot tea, but now you’ve worked up a sweat walking across campus and you think you’ll just have that strawberry-banana smoothie.
5. Not only have I learned the name of every possible drink, I am now an expert on what time Panera’s doors open and what is the last possible minute you can slip in before closing. It may be a good thing that I can’t order food after 9pm!
6. Most importantly, there are more things to order than your “faves” or your go-to menu items. No matter where you go on campus, there is guaranteed to be something on the menu you haven’t ordered.
7. There’s an app for that! The myPanera app has literally saved my life some mornings when I was running late for class but desperately needed a breakfast sandwich. While you can’t use your meal plan card in the app like you can with Tapingo, the Panera app still let’s you place your order before you get there, and will even save your preferred payment method/credit card so that you don’t have to type it in every time.
Happy dining, fellow collegiettes!