[natural sound: Norris noise; chatter of people eating and walking]
When Northwestern students want a break from dining hall food, Norris University Center is a popular go-to. Norris is the destination of choice when students find themselves willing to shell out their precious meal swipes and dining dollars. From Starbucks and ShakeSmart to fuel the morning grind
[sound effect: coffee pouring]
to Buen Dia and 847 Burger for some variety in meal options,
[sound effect: burger sizzling on grill]
Norris has it all. One standout among all these choices is MOD Pizza. The Evanston location of the fast-casual build-your-own pizza chain has been a popular spot since its opening in 2018. Here’s Henry Wolfe, SESP sophomore, on its place in his life:
HENRY WOLFE: In regards to MOD Pizza, last year, it was actually my favorite place to get meal swipes. I would always get the same thing every time; I would get onions and sausage and chicken and the spicy sauce and hot honey.
But things are different this year; due to franchise-wide pricing changes in 2024, MOD at Norris no longer offers an unlimited-topping pizza as a meal exchange option. Now, unless you want to spend dining dollars, your only options are a salad, or a cheese pizza with one complimentary topping. Henry has strong opinions on this:
WOLFE: This year I haven’t even gotten it once because I’m on a boycott of MOD Pizza because I’m actually really annoyed because MOD Pizza’s entire business model was that you can edit your pizza however you want. And it’s like you get to customize it and then suddenly now we don’t get to do that and that’s really upsetting to me because we’re paying a lot of money for a meal plan and the fact that the meal plan is basically reducing its benefits. But the price is not changing. It’s very frustrating. If anything it’s increasing. And so, yeah, that’s really unfortunate.
This isn’t a unique position either. Cameron Lara, a sophomore studying psychology, is on the same page:
CAMERON LARA: I think it’s a real downgrade from what we had last year, and it feels like it’s just like a money grab to me, to like make another thing that’s like, oh, you gotta spend dining dollars to like, get, I feel, like, one topping on a pizza. Like, what are you gonna do with that?
Despite these changes, though, many people still patronize the establishment, especially those who weren’t around for the old system. Weinberg freshman Brandon Wolmer is pretty fine with the situation:
BRANDON WOLMER: This is my first year, but from what I’ve heard, it used to be a lot better in previous years and upperclassmen are complaining.
KRISHNA KUMAR (on tape): Anything specific?
WOLMER: They say they’re upset that you can only get one topping on the pizza now and it used to be unlimited. Other than that though, I don’t really know.
KUMAR: You don’t have anything personal about it.
WOLMER: No personal, no personal feelings about it. No.
And for those who don’t use meal exchanges, or have dining dollars to spare for the upgrade, the change is barely perceptible. Fifth-year Calista Smith had this take:
CALISTA SMITH: I haven’t used a meal exchange since sophomore year, so it’s hard for me to speak on that. But, I mean, overall, they, like, they stopped having, sorry, they stopped having like, unlimited toppings, right?
KUMAR (on tape): Yeah, it’s one topping.
SMITH: Oh, ok. Yeah, I like, I think that’s kind of annoying because the whole point of mod is you create your own pizza.
KUMAR: Yeah.
SMITH: Yeah, so, but I usually get the same thing every time so it hasn’t really bothered me, but I could definitely see how that would be annoying.
The dining situation in Evanston isn’t totally dire, though, as a Taco Bell Cantina is set to open downtown in approximately one month.
[sound effect: Taco Bell bell]
People are a lot more appreciative about this news. Calista notes the absence of late-night options that Taco Bell might help solve:
SMITH: I think Evanston is in dire need of late night food. Like, I remember moving here and I was like, why is nothing open past nine? So I think it’s really great if they have something that’s open late, for sure.
Bianca Umaña-Taylor, a sophomore transfer, agrees that Taco Bell brings a lot to the table:
BIANCA UMAÑA-TAYLOR: I personally am not a super huge Taco Bell fan. Maybe I become one because it’s going to be so close. But yeah, I feel like there are a lot of other restaurants that I maybe would like to have inside, like maybe a Panera or something like that. But Taco Bell is pretty good and it’s also cheap, which is good for college students.
KUMAR (on tape): So someone also mentioned that it’s probably open late, which fills the niche of late night dining.
UMAÑA-TAYLOR: Right. Exactly. So I think it fulfills some things that college students are looking for on their night out if you know what I mean?
And Henry is even more excited about its opening:
WOLFE: Taco Bell holds a very special place in my heart. I love, I, I Live Más. I really enjoy the fact that, when I was at home with my friends and we’d be hanging out really late at night, Taco Bell is always a place where I could go, when I knew that I didn’t have a lot of money and was able to go out. And they’d always have really high quality, cheap fast food. And so I’m really excited because Evanston is, since I’ve been here, Evanston has never really had any sort of late night or fast food options, which is really disappointing to me because, you know, it’s a college town. That’s, I feel like a staple of a college town is to have those sort of options late at night. You, they’re expecting kids to be out late and I think that you sort of need sustenance when you’re doing that and so the fact that this, the entire town sort of shuts down, it is very frustrating, but I’m really glad that there’s options opening up.
Though the MOD situation may have brought some grievances with the dining options at Northwestern to light, Taco Bell Cantina seems to be the savior we’ve been waiting for.
For WNUR News, I’m Krishna Kumar.
Audio Credits:
Coffee sound effect: Shameim Hossain, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCzNqWMMLM
Grill sound effect: Tim Kahn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssckODPxPaI
Taco Bell sound effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLvGB3Ol2p4
