Restaurant of the Week: Malott Commons
This week's restaurant: Malott Commons, the Scripps College dining hall, 10th and Columbia, Claremont.
I was going to write a favorable post about Omana's, a Juanita's-like taco stand at about 1000 W. Holt Ave. in Pomona, near St. Joseph's church, where I had a good burrito before Monday's council meeting. (At Omana's, not at St. Joe's.) Tacos are $1 to $1.25, burritos are $3 to $3.50 and plates are $4, so you won't spend much dough. My carne asada burrito had meat, beans and salsa. It was ruder than most neat American-style burritos, but quite good.
However, I was invited to lunch Thursday at Scripps by Judy Harvey Sahak of the college's Denison Library. Claremont Colleges' food won a deserved rave from a visitor and blogger from Occidental College. I ate last year at Pomona College's Frary dining hall and was impressed.
Harvey Sahak bragged that the Scripps food service is the best of any of the colleges and told me I had to try it.
Well! It's all you can eat, and I can't even tell you all the stuff they had, they had so much. Let's see: a good salad bar; four kinds of soup, including sourdough bread bowls; an array of gourmet-style hamburgers, deli sandwiches and paninis; four varieties of wood-fired pizza by the slice; a pasta dish called eggplant roll-a-tini; barbecued beef brisket and cornbread; meatball stromboli; and vegetarian dishes cooked to order.
I had cream of asparagus soup, pizza with tomato, salad, meatball stromboli (a sandwich in a pita-like bread) and a slice of beef brisket. For dessert, frozen yogurt. Plus an iced tea. Harvey Sahak insisted on treating. Price is $5 for colleges folk and $7.50 for anyone else, not that anyone checks ID. Anyone can eat at the college dining halls, and while they don't exactly publicize that fact, they don't discourage the public.
Best dining deal in town. And the food is a long way from mac and cheese and mystery meat.
In a satisfying boost for my ego, I was even recognized by a couple of readers, a college employee and her mom. All in all, a pleasant outing.
Omana's is still cheaper, but not by much.
Maybe "college cafeterias" would draw the same excitement as "nostalgia". With so many colleges in our radius, you could fill at least 2 weeks of blogging. You have probably tried Kellogg West at Cal Poly Pomona. For those who don't know about it, the students run/staff it and it has a great view....and they can host wedding receptions there.
I'll treat you to the Mountie Grill (that would be Mt. Sac) - you probably haven't ventured there. Probably not like Scripps though.
[Yeah, I probably could do a nice series of posts or a column about college dining. Ditto with local airport cafes: Flo's, Maniac Mike's, etc. -- DA]
It's worth noting that non-students are barred from Malott Commons between noon and noon-thirty so that students can get a meal and still make it to class on time. (I think those are the times, but they might have changed them this year.)
You need to try Collins (CMC), and steak night at Harvey Mudd next!
[Steak night! It's got a nice ring to it. I hear there's a sushi day that rotates among the cafeterias too. -- DA]
This sounds like a great improvement over my experience with another SCIAC cafeteria decades ago.
Don't want to do a "Hal" but I forgot to mention my kids' experience when they were visiting college campuses. Cal Baptist in Riverside was rated among the high schoolers with the best food.
DMH
Eating at a college cafeteria was not something I ever considered.
Like rpfromrc, my college cafeteria experience from decades ago was one of the reasons I moved off campus as fast as possible.
It seemed like the breakfast orange juice and eggs were spiked with fast acting Ex-Lax. Try getting to an eight o'clock class when you're wretching your insides out in the bathroom, having the Hershey's squirts.
Lunch was usually three-days-before dinner leftovers which were somehow hideously transformed into a salmonella casserole special.
There was a steak night on the weekend for dinner. I think the meat was supplied by Thom McAn. Lea & Perrins couldn't fix it, only Shinola would. I was afraid of the mashed potatoes because of the saltpeter rumors. The rest of the dinners were so heinous that Ethiopians and Biafrans would refuse them.
I would survive on bread and fruit smuggled out to my lair. Grapefruit were routinely injected with 250cc tequila to diminish the taste of malathion and kill any medfly larvae.
Then freshmen wankers would try to pass off moldy commersh storage pot inundated with parquat as '"The Kind."
Sounds like things have definitely improved.
Have you tried Scotty's Dogs - 9549 Central Ave., Montclair (c/o Palo Verde in the Stater Bros center)? We offer all beef hot dogs, italian, polish and hot links. We also have a vast array of toppings to add to any dog. Try our "gumbajambo," a unique combination of gumbo and jambalaya.
We are a sole proprietorship in business now for 16 months. Our visibility seems to be low due to our location. We are on the verge of being forced to close due to extremely low sales. Our prices are very low compared to other "specialty" dog stores in the area, but can most certainly use some publicity.
When Allan Borgen did a column on us we had a surge in business, now people comment on "how long have you been here, we've never seen you before."
Can you help?
[I'll give your place a try sometime. Realistically, being mentioned on my blog might get you two or three customers, so please don't base your whole marketing plan on me! -- DA]
GREETINGS:
Being both a University of La Verne alumnus and an employee, I admit to having some interesting tales involving Davenport Dining Hall. I have also been a guest at several other college eateries throughout the area, so I have the ability to make comparisons (the good, the bad and the inedible, so to speak!).
That being said, my addition to this blog comes from something my sister told me during her freshman year at Occidental College. There, each night students had a couple of choices for a main course, including what they called "mystery meat, with or without."
"With or without what?" I asked.
"Gravy," she replied.
"Does it help?" I wondered.
"The gravy typically isn't that good, but it does a great job of hiding the sins of the cook!" she answered.
Every time I eat in a buffet line and see an unknown meat covered in undistinguished sauce, I remember my sister's words and (usually) steer straight for the salad bar.
I work on call for Campus Safety at the Colleges and one of the perks is getting to eat in the different dining halls. Malott's is good, but I would have to say Pitzer's is really good as well. McConnell Bistro is the Pitzer College's dining hall and it is definitely hi grade restaraunt quality food. Anytime I work an event at Pitzer, I make it a point to stop and eat there...oh and this Friday is the Kohoutek Music Festival...so I guess I'll have some McConnell.
[I've eaten at the Grove House at Pitzer but not McConnell. Well, I'll get there sometime. Gotta try Mudd too, and CMC. -- DA]