Barnard cafés: now with even less bang for your (mandatory meal plan) buck

A couple of months ago, Dean Dorothy Denburg proudly announced that Barnard was to open a new café. “Liz’s Place,” as this café called itself, was to be a “wonderful resource” and “an expanded and improved-upon replacement for Java City” – presumably so flowing with mouth-watering snacktime treats that all mandatory meal-plan haters (read: everyone at Barnard) would suddenly realize their mistake and atone for their mandatory meal plan-hating ways.

Everyone held their breath as the doors parted to Liz’s Place on opening day. What could Dean Denburg have possibly meant by “improved”?, the students wondered to themselves. Would there be “100% fruit smoothies” that were actually made entirely of fruit and not of sugar- and dairy-enhanced fruit syrups? Would there be scones that didn’t crumble at the touch?

Here’s what these students found at Liz’s Place: muffins, donuts, and prepackaged sushi that were somehow even less compelling than their old Java City counterparts. The color scheme of the café (white + that uniquely Diana strange orangey color) set a sort of minimalist tone, and none of Java City’s big, comfy couches were anywhere in sight (R.I.P.). The lone two “improvements” Bwog could detect were that the sushi packs, confined at Java City to a food display case, had been (in keeping with said minimalist flair) oddly relocated to a stark-looking bed of ice, and that a new price list affixed to the café’s wall revealed products’ calorie information. (The caloric content of the food, incidentally, is a bit less in keeping with the minimalist flair). Also, there was chocolate pudding.

Now what didn’t the students find at Liz’s Place? Among the items absent from this fine establishment were the handful of school supplies and personal care items formerly available at Java City: highlighters, Bic pens, tampons, cough drops, and Pepto-Bismol. Bwog’s guess is that these products have gone into storage and will be making their return as the “new convenience store opening in the Quad next fall”; Bwog doesn’t expect too many people to be holding their breath on that opening day.

Liz’s Place is located on the first floor of the Diana Center and open from 8 AM to 12 AM Mondays through Thursdays and 8 AM to 8 PM on Fridays. You can visit the website and see a picture of what hot chocolate there doesn’t look like here.