MAY 1, 2025 | OPINION | By Grant Loui (Staff writer)
Picture this: you’re talking with some friends about where you like to eat on campus, and you mention you’re not a fan of The Preserve. They all look at you as if you’ve got five heads. They start yelling at you, insisting you’re wrong, and then they punch and kick you before throwing you off the Tutt Library deck.
Okay, that didn’t actually happen, but that’s how it feels. People are so obsessed with the Preserve, and for seven and a half blocks, I’ve had to hold my tongue. Well, not anymore. I have to speak my truth. I’m here to say I don’t like The Preserve. It’s overrated, and I’m tired of pretending it isn’t.
I want to preface that I am not attacking the workers at The Preserve. They are all wonderful people and the best part of The Preserve experience. I understand they are just doing their job. This is a criticism of The Preserve as an entity, not of any person. I am also not criticizing the actual food because I generally think Bon Appétit makes good food across the board.
First off, one of my most significant complaints with The Preserve is the unbearable length of the lines. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I once spent 30 minutes waiting in line. Now I know what you may be thinking, “Well, the lines at Rastalls can get really long,” and while that’s true, the salad and soup bars never have a line. But you want to get mac and cheese for lunch, and at that point, it’s your own damn fault. The line at The Preserve is a different beast.
If you want to grab a drink or something from the fridges, well, you’d better be in a group, or you risk people not letting you back in line. But once you get to the cashier and pay for your meal, your struggles must be over, right? Wrong! Now you have to wait in the line for the actual food, and these lines intersect with the primary line, creating a crowded mess. And you better hope that your food is ready to be prepared, or you need to wait even longer. Oh joy, it’s not like I have places to be or anything. And God forbid I try to ask if I could just have a different slice of pizza instead. I forgot that the whole integrity of this establishment will crumble if I get a different pizza.
The seating at The Preserve also isn’t ideal. The area feels claustrophobic. While the outside tables are meant to provide more seating and space, they only work half the year when there isn’t snow and it’s above 50 degrees. This all adds to the cramped feeling that permeates the place.
For a long time, I wondered what made people go crazy for The Preserve, and I think it’s for the simple reason that it’s not in the Worner Student Center. The distance creates enough separation for people to be able to convince themselves that the food is better. The cognitive dissonance created by space is nothing more than a simple trick they play on themselves and everyone else.
However, the worst thing about The Preserve is YOU. Whether you’re just someone who thinks it’s the best place on campus, or you’re one of those pretentious assholes who “wouldn’t be caught dead” anywhere but The Preserve, you all play into this fake hierarchical system. People prop up The Preserve as the best dining option, proudly proclaiming it’s “way better than Rastalls or Benji’s” and “the only place I will eat,” when in reality, it’s all the same! Bon Appétit runs all of the places on campus, and it’s all the same, but you’re all blinded by your ego and exaggerated self-worth to see this. It’s just been arbitrarily decided that The Preserve stands out at the top because you’re on the meal plan and need to eat, but you would rather create a hierarchy than, for one moment, consider that you’re not special.
The Preserve is nothing special. Not to say it is bad, but I hope people can see that all of the hype is overblown by egotistical narcissists who need a hip and cool place to feel special and important. We don’t need to be divided on the issue of dining halls, but I also won’t stand for bullshit hierarchies. While you’re wasting your life away in those lines, just remember that it’s all the same ingredients, no matter how much you deny it.