What is The Best Lunch Spot At Newman
BOSTON, MASS - Newman students have a great privilege; The city is our campus. So, when the bell rings throughout the halls at 11:40 for lunch, students are permitted to go off Newman’s campus out to lunch along Newbury and Boylston Street. There are multitudes of options for Newman students, which is why this article is trying to deduce: What is the Best Lunch Spot at Newman?
This is the output to the original question. The places not listed on the pie chart are: Cha Feo, Sweetgreen, Dunkin, Saloniki, and Yi Fang Fruit Tea. All received one vote each.
The overwhelming majority picked Starbucks, with 16 of 80 survey participants. Second was DeLuca’s Market, which is a convenience store that sells everyday products, along with fresh sandwiches. Following in third was Chipotle, the Mexican-American fast food chain that uses an assembly line to produce their meals. Following that was Cava, Raisin’ Canes, and Dirty Water Dough Co.. Raisin’ Canes has recently become especially popular with its opening at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
Some places that could have been more popular performed very underwhelmingly in the survey, with places such as Dunkin not performing well. Dunkin is in a very similar vicinity to Starbucks, and offers similar products at a slightly cheaper price.
It is odd that it didn’t perform well especially considering that cheaper places typically are more popular on the survey. For example, Union Park Pizza is slightly more expensive than Dirty Water, and yet only tallies a third of the votes that Dirty Water does. Why is the situation not the same for Starbucks and Dunkin’? Another underperformer in the form was CVS. CVS doesn’t offer a good deal of lunch products, nevertheless, Newman students are constantly moving in and out of the store. The popularity it seems to have is not reflected in the survey.
What Makes a Good Lunch Place?
The people have spoken. Yet, if anything, the best lunch spot is not clarified. Starbucks, the best performer, still only consumed 20% of the vote. Given the life of a Newman student, what, in theory, should the best lunch place be?
One thing troubling Newman students is time constraints. Newman students have approximately 45 minutes to eat, rendering more slow-paced options sub-optimal for a place to go. For example, Greek restaurant Greco has a relatively long waitlist, with meals sometimes taking 10 minutes to procure. Despite the quality of the service and food there, more refined restaurants aren’t great options. Distance is also a factor, and other places such as Saloniki or Chick-Fil-A are approximately ten minute walks each way, again hindering their popularity.
Another factor we have to consider is price. Many Newman students go out three or five times a week, meaning that not every meal can be exceedingly expensive.
This means places that are over ten dollars, such as Greco, Chipotle, Cava, Sweetgreen, Tatte, and other places with very high price tags. Ramsay’s Kitchen, arguably, has the best quality food, but very few go there, one, because it is a sit-down, leisurely paced restaurant, and two, because an appetizer and an entree could total comfortably over forty dollars.
With those places out of the way, the main restaurants or places to eat left are: Starbucks, DeLuca’s, Raisin’ Canes, Dirty Water, Shake Shack, Union Park Pizza, and Dunkin’, in order of popularity. But this list still needs to be narrowed down.
Next, we can judge by setting. Certain places have more ambiance; a different milieu. Dunkin’ for example, has no seats in the restaurants. It is by all means a fast food place, and, also, isn’t the most pristine. This is why Starbucks is so monumentally more popular than Dunkin’. While I think Dunkin’s coffee is phenomenal, with a strong, robust flavor, nevertheless, Starbucks does have a bit more to offer, at still, a somewhat low price point.
One of the biggest mysteries on this list is Dirty Water and Union Park Pizza. Dirty Water is more popular, however, when you examine the previous criteria, Union Park Pizza is a more favorable place.
Distance: Union Park (Slightly Closer)
Price: Same for cheese, more for other types at Union Park
Environment: Union Park, it is a more settled place, and is a bit more pleasant to be in, provided with the music there
Examining this criteria, Union Park Pizza is a slightly better place than Dirty Water. Also, if you consider the quintessential slice of pizza, Union Park is superior to Dirty Water. That of course, is highly subjective, and as a New Yorker, I carry an extreme bias. However, Union Park seems to put a bit more time and effort into producing their pizza.
With all that aside, Dirty Water, find it a decent slice of pizza or not, is a part of the Newman culture. Many a time, when visiting the restaurant, there are Newman students there. When I go to Dirty Water, I typically go with friends. This is because there is a certain culture there that Newman has. The restaurants such as CVS, Starbucks, DeLuca’s, all have many Newman students who go there on a regular basis because they are permanently established on the basis of school culture.
The privilege of Newman students having the city as their campus is something that is incredibly special, and the lunch block represents who we are as a school. It is a time of freedom, independence, and exploration, a time to meet new people and to taste new foods.
My most profuse thanks to everyone who participated. Newsman debate columns have achieved a record 80 responses, or almost a ⅓ of the student body.
Available in the Winter 2024 Print Edition