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Archive for August, 2024

Coffee Around the OU Campus

Miss Mae is back for a review of the coffee shops around campus. Since the newest coffee shop on campus, Cup of Jones in the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art, just opened this week, she hasn’t had a chance to visit. Hope to get an update from her soon.

Campus Coffee Shops

            At the University of Oklahoma, there are a number of coffee shops both on and off campus that offer a morning pick-me-up to the students. No matter where you enter the campus, or where your class or other activity is located, you are never far from a caffeine fix. This is a comprehensive list of every place at and around the University of Oklahoma that sells coffee, whether that be their primary product or part of a larger menu.

            Couch Restaurants: Sooner Sweet Shop – Couch Cafeteria has a number small restaurants within it and one of these is Sooner Sweet Shop, which primarily provides bakery style treats and a small selection of hand scooped ice creams. However, this is also the only place in Couch where you can get a coffee, both drip and espresso. This, like every other coffee option on the campus, is a branch of Starbucks, making it the cheapest Starbucks drink you will ever get, as it comes with the price of admission to the cafeteria. Though they do not offer most of the menu, or even iced drinks, it is a good place to get a mocha or hot chocolate on a snowy day. However, with the brewed coffee, the only creamer option is half and half. If you are not a fan of bitter brewed coffee, I recommend getting it somewhere else, or using one of the hot chocolate packets to sweeten it up.

            Residential Colleges Dining Hall – The Residential Colleges Dining Hall, though it does not have an independent coffee shop within it, does offer drip coffee throughout the day. They often offer two flavors, regular and roasted hazelnut, with the roasted hazelnut having a pleasantly sweet taste. Like Couch, the options for cream and sugar are limited, with those limitations expanding even further due to the crimes of the Coffee Creamer Bandit, whose actions, though irrelevant to this review, caused all liquid creamer to be kept in a secure location and only available upon request. However, just like Couch, it is always an option to pour a hot chocolate packet into the cup if you need something a little sweeter.

            The Hive – The Hive is the newest coffee shop on campus, having opened with the rest of the restaurants in Cross Village just a few years ago. It is a small, unofficial Starbucks with the theme of a beehive. The best thing about this place is its atmosphere. If I was asked to draw a picture of what a coffee shop would look like, this would most likely be my answer, with dim lighting and warm wood covering most of the walls and furniture. The coffee itself is good, as are the pastries and sandwiches that are also offered. It is one of the best managed places in Cross Village, so it is kept clean and the employees are kept orderly. The only thing that interrupts its atmosphere is the chaos of Basic Knead, which shares a building, as it tends to get very busy and very noisy, which makes it difficult to concentrate if you are studying or doing homework.

            Bookmark – Bookmark is a small coffee shop nestled in the basement of the Bizzell Memorial Library. It is incredibly similar to The Hive in terms of its menu, as it is also an unofficial Starbucks, and therefore has many of the same products. It is the best managed restaurant on the entire campus and is kept very clean with very friendly employees. Just like The Hive, the best thing about this shop is the atmosphere, not just in its dining room, but in its entire location. There are seating options throughout the entire basement, with a dining room, an area with study pods and group study rooms, and long couches overlooking the gardens in the library courtyard, where there are regularly blooming flowers and baby ducks in a little pond. It is always a good place to stop and get some homework done before or in between classes. They also offer Cow on the Fly sandwiches, in which there is no bad flavor.

            Starbucks – Despite the many other places that offer Starbucks products throughout campus, there is only one official Starbucks, and that is the one in the student union. At this location, they offer the entire menu, as well as a collection of cups and ground coffee bags, which can also be purchased with student meal points. It is a neat and tidy location, with the same warm atmosphere as The Hive. Although the seating is limited, getting there at the right time of day offers a quiet place to study, as well as having the dining room of The Union Market available for overflow if it gets busy. It is always a good end of the week treat on a Friday morning.

            Einstein Brothers Bagel Company – Einstein Brothers Bagel Company is one of the best coffee shops on campus, the only one not sponsored by Starbucks, and the only one that is regularly open on weekends. Offering an assortment of bagel flavors, as well as cream cheese toppings, sandwich toppings, and wraps, it is always a good place to grab breakfast. Their coffee is good for any season, offering both hot and iced drinks, although their espresso machine is comparable to the ice cream machine at McDonald’s in its inconsistency. However, their chocolate cream cold brew is incredibly good, and is very sweet for cold brew. I would compare it more closely to chocolate milk with a lot of caffeine. I personally always enjoy a six-cheese bagel with onion and chive cream cheese, of which they provide plenty.

            Haystack Coffee – Haystack Coffee is the only coffee shop on this list that is not on campus and does not accept student meal points or exchanges. It is a shop run by a local church but is so close to campus that it is only a brief ten-minute walk from most dorm buildings. Despite not being a campus specific spot, it is very friendly to students and every experience I have had there has been a good one. Their biggest flaw is an inconsistent menu. My favorite thing there, the cheddar roll, has not been available in a year, and my second favorite thing, the caramel apple pecan scone, has only been available on select days. Their baked goods are minimal, but are always good, especially after being warmed up. I also recommend any of their seasonal drinks.

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Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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University of Oklahoma Campus Restaurants

With school about to start in Norman at The University of Oklahoma, I have let Miss Mae, a senior at that fine school, take over. She knows this campus pretty well and loves talking about the restaurants. So if you visit the campus or if you have students there, check out this review. Enjoy and Boomer Sooner.

Cafeterias

Couch Cafeteria – Couch Cafeteria is the largest and the oldest of the cafeterias on campus. It features an assortment of small restaurants offering a variety of dining options, including barbecue, Asian, Mexican, American comfort food, Italian, Greek, and the world’s only all-you-can-eat Chick Fil A. There are also two dessert options: Sooner Sweets, which offers bakery-style desserts, and a small ice cream booth. Each restaurant is unique and offers its own standout dishes. I personally enjoy the beef and cheese burritos from the Mexican booth, which also has good beef empanadas. I also enjoy the buffet style American section, which offers a build-your-own hot dog station and mac and cheese that always makes a bad day better. Couch Cafeteria – 9/10

Residential Colleges Dining Hall – The Residential Colleges Dining Hall, as the name implies, is connected to the Residential Colleges, Dunham College and Headington College. Though much smaller than Couch, this cafeteria is able to make use of its small space to give diners plenty of options. These include two made-to-order grills, where burgers and hot dogs can be ordered, a personal pizza station, a pasta bake station, a burrito station, and a panini station. Outside of this is the buffet style section, which includes a menu that rotates daily. I personally recommend the chicken enchiladas and the orange chicken, which are some of my favorites to get on a weekend visit. The atmosphere is flawless, often considered similar to Hogwarts. Residential Colleges Dining Hall – 9.5/10

Cross Village

Credo Kitchen – Credo Kitchen is a restaurant that offers basic American comfort food, with an emphasis on the word “basic”. As a person that once worked there, I can tell you that the kitchens are not the cleanest place in the world, and the food tends to taste like broken dreams and sadness. In the past few years, their menu has dropped to very few things (mostly due to their inability to keep the place staffed), leaving diners with very few options. The burgers taste like cardboard, partially due to the lack of spices kept in the kitchens, and partially due to the unbuttered, grocery store brand toasted buns. The chicken strips and the corn dogs begin their lives in the frozen food aisle before they are dumped in a deep fryer and paired with a side of unsalted fries or a tiny cup of mac and cheese that tastes like undercooked noodles dumped in a pot of melted Kraft singles. I have heard reports of people that enjoy this place but I am unable to understand the appeal. However, as long as the kitchen is not on fire and the ticket printer is actually working, they will be quick with your order. Credo Kitchen – 2/10

Glow Kitchen – Glow Kitchen is Cross’ version of the American health food restaurant, offering salads, wraps, and smoothies. Most of the wraps consist of chicken and lettuce, with varying toppings to give different flavors. However, Glow Kitchen’s biggest wrap flaw is lack of any form of customization. The workers are not allowed to add anything or to substitute anything which, according to the management, is due to the high price of the ingredients. The salads, on the other hand, are fully customizable, only for the smoothies to be subjected to the same policy. If you are planning to grab lunch from Glow Kitchen, make sure you are a fan of lettuce, as there is a very high lettuce ratio in everything but the smoothies. I recommend the chicken bacon ranch wrap. Glow Kitchen – 4/10

Milkflower Gelateria – There is not much to say about Milkflower Gelateria. It is a small gelato place and is immensely popular amongst the student body. Its weakness: it is almost never open. It is often teased at the beginning of the year, remaining open for the camps and trainings that go on before classes start, but once everything stabilizes into the school year, we are lucky if it is open once a week. Whether this is due to supply issues, maintenance issues, lack of profitability, or some other factor, it is an event when it is open. If you catch it at one of these times, I recommend the espresso mocha flavor. Milkflower Gelateria – 7/10

Basic Knead – Basic Knead is, in the opinion of this exhausted college student, the best place to eat on the entire campus. It is a restaurant offering personal pizzas, pasta bakes, calzones, and wings, with the pasta bakes taking the crown as the best food available at the school and, quite possibly, the best food available at any school all around the country. What makes these dishes so wonderful is the layer of cheese that is baked over the top, as well as full customization options. You can pick your pasta, sauce, and three toppings, and every dish comes with a healthy serving of that wonderful mozzarella. Basic Knead – 1000/10

Student Union

Quiznos – Offers full Quiznos menu. Quick Service. Quiznos – 10/10

Chick Fil A – Offers limited Chick Fil A menu. Quick Service. Chick Fil A – 10/10

Baja Fresh – Offers full Baja Fresh menu. Quick Service – Baja Fresh – 10/10

Crossroads – Crossroads is a burger restaurant and one of the oldest surviving food locations on campus. Offering a full range of food from burgers to steak fingers, Philly cheese steaks to grilled cheeses, Crossroads is a quick and easy place to get a good lunch in-between classes. I have many go-to meals here, with my personal favorite being the mushroom Swiss burger. There are so many mushrooms on this burger that it is almost impossible to see the meat beneath them. My other favorite meal from here is the steak finger basket. It comes with five juicy steak fingers, a pile of curly fries (the restaurant’s staple), and a choice of sauce. I usually choose the barbecue sauce, but I have been told that the honey mustard is also very good. Most meals here come with a drink, but a substitution for a milkshake is also very good. Crossroads – 11/10

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Food Friday: Ron’s Hamburgers and Chili

For quite a while there’s been a commercial on local tv that is featuring different businesses in The Shoppes at Northpark (Northpark Mall for all of us old-timers). In that commercial they show some of the items on the menu for Ron’s Hamburger and Chili. Front and center is one of the best looking footlong hot dogs I’ve ever seen. I decided it was time for us to visit again.

All 3 of us got to go on a Saturday afternoon. Since you can get to the restaurant from the parking lot, you don’t have to walk through the mall to find it. As good as that hot dog looked, I decided to order a basic bacon cheeseburger. Miss Mae got the footlong hot dog without chili and Big K got the Polish special. We also got mozzarella sticks and onion rings to share. Everything came out pretty quickly and it all looked just as good in real life as it did on tv. First up were the baskets of onion rings and mozzarella sticks. The rings were great, the breading had a great taste as did the sweet onions inside. The sticks were the same way, bigger than most, they were good to share. My bacon cheeseburger was good. Nice solid burger with lots of veggies, cheese, and bacon bits all stacked on a toasted bun. Nothing fancy about this burger, just what you want out of a bacon cheeseburger. Now for that footlong hot dog, I had a bite, next time I’ll be ordering it only with chili. The bun was toasted, the dog itself had that good snap with a great flavor. Big K’s Polish special was interesting, spaghetti with chili and Polish sausage on top. It’s an interesting mix but we actually tried this dish in Ohio this past May. He really loved it, thought everything was cooked perfectly from the pasta to the chili.

We had been to Ron’s several times in the past, the most memorable visit was in 2010. We took my husband’s uncle to their former Edmond location to thank him for donating bone marrow to my father-in-law. The Edmond location is closed and this new location has been in Northpark Mall for about 2 years. The employees were really nice, even complimenting my daughter on her newly colored purple hair. If you are looking for a good burger, hot dog, or even something different like chili over spaghetti, check Ron’s out. They have lots of locations around the state. I give them 5 strips of bacon, preferably wrapped around that hot dog.

Address: 11956 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City; 1913 S Elm Place, Broken Arrow; 1220 S. Lynn Riggs Blvd., Claremore; 351 N. Air Depot, Midwest City; 130 W. 141st. St., Glenpool; 505 W. Main St., Jenks; 233 S. Adams Rd., Sand Springs; 9100 N. Garnett Rd., Owasso; 1440 S. Denver, Tulsa; 7119 S. Mingo Rd., Tulsa; 6548 E. 51st St., Tulsa; 8201 S. Harvard, Tulsa; 804 W. Rogers, Skiatook; 811 E. 6th St., Stillwater; 1105 W. Cherokee St., Wagoner; 18415 FM 1488 Magnolia, TX; 14257 FM 2920, Suite 210, Tomball, TX; 1702 S. Walton Blvd., Bentonville, AR.

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Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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