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Marketplace Eatery
Robert Purcell Community Center
North Campus, Cornell University
Price: Fixed, Lunch $7.50, Dinner $8.75
http://www.campuslife.cornell.edu
Posted on: 10/22/99
Yes, we went to a dining hall for lunch. And we feel no shame. Cornell has always tried to stake the claim that its dining facilities are above the average academic fare. Typically, this is true, and most Cornell undergrads have been able to proudly boast fine school food to their hungrier, and probably skinnier, friends. Over the years Cornell has slowly evolved its dining halls into increasingly "restaurant-like" affairs, but still, in the end, one would not mistake Jansen's, or Okenshield's, for anything but a college dining hall, albeit pretty satisfying ones. A recent and much ballyhooed renovation at the Robert Purcell Community Center, though, has brought newfound press coverage to dining at Cornell. Obligated by the research that Ithaca Eats entails, we've done our civic duty.
To anyone who was familiar with the old RPU, as it was once known, the new RPCC interior comes as a shock. But, as this is a review of food, and not architecture (not that there's anything wrong with that), let's move on upstairs to the "Marketplace Eatery". Still, we recommend you peruse RPCC and enjoy its futuristic and playful design, a refreshing change from typical modern institutionalism.
In a nutshell, Cornell has clearly designed the Marketplace Eatery as a showcase of sorts, stripping away nearly all "dining hall" elements, other than the meal plan register at the entrance where we non-students have to pay with actual grown-up money (or, better yet, grown-up credit). For those cafeteria flourishes that remain necessary -- such as trays and bowls -- Cornell has upgraded to quality materials and "hip" designs. In fact, we were surprised at the quality of dining ware that's been chosen for this crowd of partially asleep youngsters. This could have all come off as garish or superficial, we suppose, but in this context it actually works.
At its core, the Marketplace morphs the typical Cornell dining hall with a "euro style eatery", the posh sort of upscale cafeterias quite popular in city centers where you stand behind ladies accustomed to interviewing housecleaners taking gritty pride in handling their own breads, cheeses, and stir frys. Except that, priced as a buffet, you needn't deal with the hassle of a la carte dining (also you get to eat more). In its current incarnation, the Marketplace (which, since it is a buffet, is something of a misnomer) offers a wide variety of options including several fresh made pasta dishes, a standard deli counter, a grill with both spiedies and a portobello sandwich, pizza, endless salad fixings, soups, several entrees, and the ever popular Mongolian grill. The Mongolian grill is well executed and recommended; on this particular day one of the entrees included fried scallops. The sheer principle of unlimited scallops was a big winner with us --- whether fried, steamed, or rolled in dirt for all we care.Admittedly, this was not an every day item, but the daily entree menus (the only rotating portions of the offerings) are available at the Cornell Dining web site.
If you've somehow failed to ingest enough calories after the first few rounds, plenty of cakes, cookies, and ice cream can fill that void. The dessert offerings at the Marketplace were actually somewhat modest in comparison to some of Cornell's indulgences in past dining hall experiences. Are these healthier times? Let us hope not -- there is room for improvement here.
Special kudos to the layout of the Marketplace Eatery, which drastically improves on the claustrophobia and traffic flow problems of many dining halls. There is ample space between serving stations, and the mixture of stations and seating, and styles of seating from small to large tables to raised bars, gives the whole room a very well balanced feeling.
Any buffet-style eatery
offers varying levels of quality -- the chocolate cake was better than
the cherry pie, for instance; the chili trumps the pizza. Self control
is difficult to maintain in places like this, and that's not necessarily
a plus. The Marketplace benefits from context: what would be a respectable
mid-scale buffet at a downtown mall in Toronto comes off as a superb dining
hall. But with
very comfortable surroundings and good value for the dollar, this is no
small achievment for what is, underneath it all, technically an academic
cafeteria.
