Photo courtesy of Faves | Above: Student owner Danny Schwartz and the first customer at Faves.
Smiling faces ready to do whatever they can to make your day a little bit better are the first thing you see when approaching Faves in the Conaton Learning Commons during the limited operation hours this semester.
Faves will reportedly be open during breakfast and dinner hours next semester, but for the time being, they’re open Monday to Thursday from 2 to 5 p.m.
There are only four sections in the menu: crepes, salads, paninis and “blends,” which is what they call their smoothies. All items in the crepes and blends sections cost $3.95, and all salads and paninis are $5.95. It’s around the same price as most other eateries, especially for a place using ethically-sourced ingredients.
I wanted to get a full taste of what they offered, so I ordered the “Game Day” smoothie and a turkey panini. I was a tad bit disappointed that the panini didn’t come with a side, but that’s probably because I’m used to the large portion sizes typical in the United States.
I’ll start with the bad: the smoothie. It wasn’t smooth, which might be the reason that they called it a “blend” instead of a smoothie. It felt like I was sucking pulpy ice through a straw and chewing, instead of drinking a well-blended beverage. The taste of the actual smoothie was good, but the texture was the exact opposite.
The sandwich was good. It wasn’t anything I would email home about, but it was a good eat. While eating the sandwich wasn’t as mind-blowingly good as I expected a sandwich of its size to have to be to warrant spending $6 on, I did feel good while eating it because it’s way healthier than most of the other on-campus options available.
All in all, I’d give Faves a 3.5 out of 5, with high expectations for the future of the shop. The biggest downside of the eatery is that they only accept cash, X-Cash and dining dollars, making it annoying to spend money there as most people I know rely on their credit cards.
The only other downside is the smoothie, which I’m hoping they’ll fix. However, they’d been open for a grand total of 11 hours when I ordered my food. I’m hoping the menu will improve as they figure out exactly what does and doesn’t work during the break.
On a positive note, the hours will increase next semester. The sandwich was good, healthy, ethically sourced and reasonably priced. The staff is incredibly friendly and seemed to be excited about working at a student-run eatery.
Definitely try to eat at Faves to support your fellow students and ethically-sourced-and-run businesses, but probably don’t have one of their smoothies.
By: Kevin Thomas ~U.S. & World News Editor~