Update 10:13 pm: The signs are still up, but the Lerner desk says it’s okay to go inside, but didn’t know what type of vermin was being killed. It doesn’t reek of chemicals; in fact the air in 212 is more neutral and pleasing than it has ever been.

Right now, and for at least the past thirty minutes, Cafe 212 has been closed “for exterminations.” Inside the closed glass doors, a masked exterminator is spraying…something. Some girls entered through the side doors close to Carman while the exterminator was spraying and were quickly shooed out for their health. Facilities people say it’ll be open again later tonight. Clever of them to do this during the Varsity Show!

We knew they were having some trouble, but vermin? We’ll tell you more as we know.

Gross!

This is just not Café 212′s week. After being hit with 62 violations in a recent health inspection, the store flooded and has now been closed for “maintenance.” A tipster reports that he saw a man in a face mask and what looked like a mop right outside the store. No word on when it will reopen or whether there’s any connection between the flooding and the health inspection. Hang in there, Kia!

Water guzzler

Remember how we told you a few months ago that Morningside Heights is a den of filth? About that… it kind of still is.

As much as we hate to believe that it’s true—we really, really love those corn muffins—it has come to our attention that Café 212 has a super high rating due to many health violations. Its 62 violations are listed in the following screenshot from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s site:

For a point of comparison, Hewitt scored 23 and John Jay got a 12. Café East, which is located just across the room from 212, came in at a 7. (Cherish the use of the words “scored” and “came in at a…”—it’s probably the closest we’ll get to athletic jargon for a while.)

Photo by SNC

Another member of campus staff has generously given Bwog their time. Sarah Camiscoli sat down with Kia of Café 212 to give students another perspective on their daily coffee and baked delights.

Bwog: What are the strangest things students are swiping for?

Kia: “An apple turnover with cream cheese. Some lady comes and gets it every day…but we have to smile. She says, in ‘our country we eat it.’”

“Oatmeal with coffee…yes, in the cup together…they are just crazy.”

What are the most wasteful things students spend money on?

“The large fruit cup. They ask, ‘How much is that?’ I say, ‘Too much.’ I tell them to put it back. You could buy your own bushel of grapes for $1.50 up the block.”

Jump! You won’t regret it.

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After stopping Café 212′s custom salad and sandwich service on weekends, Dining restarted this part of the café’s weekend operations a few weeks ago! In an email to Bwog, Director of Dining Vicki Dunn said that they “have enough staff to resume the sandwich and salads on the weekend[s],” effectively meaning that Café 212 will now serve the same food on any given day of the week.

Sad, lonely sandwich bar

If you had a craving for a freshly-made salad or sandwich from Café 212 this weekend, you probably found yourself out of luck. Indeed, in a move that disappoints many, Dining Services recently made the decision to stop its salad and sandwich services on the weekends.

According to Director of Dining Vicki Dunn, the café was selling less than 50 salads and sandwiches on weekends, significantly less than the number sold on weekdays. She says this is the result of students changing their buying habits, especially since the introduction of off-campus Flex and other options. In an effort to reduce operational costs, Dining decided to discontinue its Café 212 salad and sandwich service.

Even so, this does not mean that a trip to Lerner for weekend sustenance will be in vain. Café 212 now has hot lunch and dinner specials on the weekends, and the faithful Café East remains open. Coffee and pastry service still exists, there are new grain salads and microwaveable meals, and there is now an abundance of pre-made sandwiches in eatery. That is, minuscule, expensive pre-made sandwiches that just don’t quite fill the void left by a hand-crafted chicken club sandwich.

-Photo by AB

Bwog’s Sean Zimmerman reports from ESC’s first meeting.

“We’re pretty sexy, so I’d like to spread that sexiness around.” Varun Gulati’s personal goal for ESC was one of many discussed at the first Engineering Student Council meeting, in which council members congregated in Lerner Cinema to discuss the coming year.  A new year brings new concerns, so never fear: Senator Rajat Roy clarified that “NROTC will not be an issue this year.”

Council members got personal while discussing dining changes; in reference to Cafe 212′s new policy that students can no longer build custom salads, Rajat bemoaned that he “wants the ability to customize [his] salad.”  Council members suspected that Dining Services’ trademark thrift came into play — perhaps some students would often fill their salads with expensive items and pay the same price as students who ordered more basic salads.

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The weekly ESC meeting never fails to provide all sorts of drama. Bwog’s Drama Junkie Sean Zimmermann was on hand last night to lap it up.

Good Samaritan policies, smoking rules, wifi in class rooms, and dining services changes were among the major topics discussed at this evening’s ESC meeting, the last of which triggering one of the more heated discussions in ESC this year.

Administrators are discussing a new idea to make the entire campus within the gates completely smoke-free, with six designated smoking areas around the campus perimeter. As of now, smoking is prohibited in all buildings and within 50 feet of the entrances, though the policy is generally not enforced unless someone complains. Read more…

Image via gather.com

Bwog Top Chef and Radiation Expert Jon Hill sauntered through Cafe 212 this morning to discover a new menu item: Stouffer’s!

No longer do you have to walk all the way to MoWi for your microwavable lasagna.  Cafe 212 will buy it, microwave it, and serve it to you, all for the low, low price of $6.95. 

Mathematical wizards behind the scenes note that this is 43% more expensive than a grocery store if you consider raw ingredients alone, but around 90% cheaper if you include the cost of buying a microwave.

If that’s too expensive for your recession-drained budget, consider the following free food options.  CQA and Club Zamana are hosting a live Oscar viewing party in Roone tonight at 8:00 PM and there will be snacks abound. 

If, after an hour of watching what seems like an endless loop of applause and bad music, you tire, consider Community Impact’s “Blue Bash Study Break” in Carman tonight at 9:00 PM.  Its “blue snacks” are for freshmen only, but you’re clever enough to sneak in.  Show your CI spirit and win stuff.  We presume wearing your favorite CSI tshirt and covering up the “S” will suffice.

For freshmen who may be well on their way to the freshman 15, Bwog Culinary Charter Jon Hill has created helpful charts on why to avoid Cafe 212.

You’re welcome.

 

With the new year comes new dining policies, and none may be more threatening to freshman waistlines than the institution of “Order-by-Phone” pickup system at JJ’s. According to Dining Services, “you can order any food item from the menu in advance by calling 212-851-5801 and can pick it up approximately 15 minutes after the phone call.”

The service (which is also available for the Kosher Deli during the day) is available Sunday – Thursday from 6 pm to 1 am. JJ’s also now offers a catering service for student group events, ensuring that a steady supply of chicken fingers will make its way into our free food announcements. 

But while the actual JJ’s menu will remain unchanged, several other campus eateries have introduced new options for the semester, including new salads at Ferris, and Bento Boxes from Mill Korean at Uris. See the full list of new ways to spend your Dining Dollars after the jump. Read more…

It’s a phenomenon almost as annoying as having to re-enter your SSOL password when you leave it alone for more than 3 minutes: rising prices at campus eateries.

So far, Bwog tipsters and staff have seen price hikes at many campus eateries. Offenders include Ferris Booth, which, in addition to replacing the popular stir fry station with a taco bar, has raised prices at several of their other stations.

At $7, Ferris and 212 sushi, for example, will now set you back more than many supermarkets in the area (M2M sells it for about $4).  Cafe 212 has also raised its prices on sandwiches, and they’ve also stopped selling sunflower seeds, which Bwog considers a travesty.

Finally, Butler’s Blue Java has, as our tipster put it, “coffee now priced at Starbucks levels, pastries even higher.” If you’ve heard of other places, on-campus or off-campus, raising (or lowering!) their prices, let us know at bwgossip@columbia.edu or in the comments.

It’s been a long time since Bwog last checked in with the kids of Exclusion Suite, this year’s answer to the campy and wonderful Gates. Episode two was released mid-May, but Bwog, in our efforts to escape the offensively unfriendly heat, just got around to watching it.

Exclusion Suite episode two begins with an acoustic version of Phantom Planet’s “California,” a sly nod towards a certain other teen melodrama. (Those who closely follow ES will note that this is the show’s second allusion to The OC, following last episode’s painful “Welcome to the EC, bitch!”) The plotlines for the episode are established within the first five minutes: Simon (Michael Galante), the one with the guitar and the chords to Phantom Planet overhears Brooke (Alice Hu) singing and asks her to join his band. Meanwhile, in 212, Natalie (S. Alex Kudroff) and Greg (Joe Cummings) have a realistically awkward and loud screaming match (“I lied when I said I liked that thing you did with your tongue!”) about their previous liason. Natalie eventually storms off to Hamdel.

Brooke and Simon invite the gang to their gig at ADP. ES‘s attempt at capturing the incoherency and casualness of party/bar banter has historically been the show’s weak point, and the concert scene is no exception. Luckily, the plot takes a genuinely welcome and unexpected turn as Rob (PJ Berg) and the cute bartender come to the conclusion that they were in the same Frontiers class and begin to flirt. “I hit my limit with calculus,” the bartender tells Rob. But unlike most of the scene’s dialogue, there’s self-awareness during the delivery of the dorky and adorable pun, and instead of cringing at the script’s self-seriousness, it becomes one of the truest moments in the show’s two episode run.

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For careful listeners, the best soundtrack on campus is the rotation of Vampire Weekend, Radiohead and other indie darlings at Cafe 212. Bwog cultural correspondent Merrell Hambleton sits down with the man behind the mix.

I find Café 212 manager Robert Bell working to hang up two small bulletin boards. “I’m actually doing something with the music,” he says. “The music” he’s referring to is precisely the reason for our meeting—Bell, tall with longish brown hair, dark framed glasses, and a neatly trimmed chinstrap, has earned a reputation in his year at Columbia for playing some non-traditional Muzak. In fact, its not Muzak at all, it’s actually, well, good. If you’re haunted by memories of 212′s old soundtrack, you’ll likely be pleased to hear the likes of Radiohead, Cat Power or the of-late-ubiquitous Vampire Weekend while you wait in the sandwich line.

So what prompted Bell to buck the trend of non-descript instrumental world music and hit-or-miss pop (read: Ferris Booth)? The Virginia native moved to New York (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to be specific) in 2004, where he first “got excited by working with food” while working at an Au Bon Pain branch.  But chain stores don’t offer a whole lot of flexibility. According to Bell, “One thing that really bothered me… was they had this Frank Sinatra thing going on. They had it very carefully orchestrated, so in Hong Kong they had an Au Bon Pain that was also playing Frank Sinatra at 8 AM.”

Read more…