It was an annoyingly nice day out in South Central LA, and I had locked myself in the library in the midst of the worst week of the semester: midterms. It was time for a study break. I pulled myself out of my hobbit hole in the book stacks of Doheny, tired of looking at endless pages on postwar Hollywood, and trudged over to Literatea.
Renowned for their milk tea and chai lattes, Literatea is the unequivocal hidden gem of food at the University of Southern California. Tucked into the back of the Doheny courtyard, it’s easy to forget that it’s there. I stood in a long midterms-induced line, waiting to order my standard cup of tea, when I overhead the order of the girl in front of me. “Could I get a grilled cheese sandwich?”
I looked up from my phone. That sounded good. They sold those here? Five minutes later, I sat outside, taking a bite of the cheesy sandwich that would change my life forever. Simple and buttery, the Literatea grilled cheese is the best meal on campus. It’s like a time machine back to the after-school snack of your childhood. A warm hug from a friend you haven’t seen for years. A cure-all for all your collegiate worries.
The Literatea grilled cheese sandwich is a total gamechanger. It fuels me through long hours in Doheny and is the most reliable campus comfort food. I know exactly what I’m in for each time I order it. I’d even go so far as to say I attribute my midterms success (okay, success is arguable) to this sandwich.