Cheap Eats - Laudable lunch at Agnes Scott’s dining hall

I don’t have particularly fond memories of my college dining hall. I vaguely remember personal pizzas and soggy french fries, and big, doughy blueberry bagels. The only thing I really loved there was a giant cereal dispenser that filled my bowl with an endless supply of Lucky Charms and Froot Loops.

My husband, Kevin, works in Decatur, just across the train tracks from Agnes Scott. For lunch, he and his co-workers often walk over to Evans Dining Hall, which is open to the public. But when he told me about the good food served there, I scoffed. A school cafeteria where you’d actually want to eat? Yeah, right.

Back to school: It was a sunny, unseasonably warm afternoon when I joined him for lunch at the college. Sand-colored stonework and soaring arched windows align Agnes Scott’s dining hall with its stately surroundings. From the outside, it looks more like a chapel than a dining hall. Inside, though, it’s chaos. Young women camped out at tables just inside the entrance, recruiting for various clubs and organizations. It was the lunch rush, and the space practically vibrated with noise as hordes of coeds bustled from food stations to tables and back. I worried we’d get funny looks — What? We don’t look like students? — but no one paid us any mind.

I’m a believer: One pass through the dining hall’s various food stations and I was officially convinced. For one thing, at $8 for all you can eat, it’s a terrific bargain. Evans is divided into seven stations, each manned by a cook who prepares dishes to order. I stood at the pasta station and watched while a chef hovered over a giant wok, tossing fresh spinach and zucchini with basil pesto, red pepper flakes and marinara. Once the spinach had wilted, she spooned it over rotini and handed it to me. At the “international” station, a cook stuffed pita bread with freshly made Greek salad.

Diet busters: Fried fish sandwiches and curly fries beckoned at the grill station. The sandwich looked a little McFishy to me — a square of fried white fish slathered in tartar sauce. But it had a nice guilty-pleasure crunch to it. Rotisserie chicken from the comfort food station was a little dried out, but fresh, appealing sides made up for it. Glazed carrots weren’t too syrupy and still had a bit of crunch to them, as did garlicky green beans. After a few bland bites of under-seasoned mashed potatoes, I moved on to a zesty green pepper stuffed with rice. Slices of greasy pizza looked as if they’d been parked under a heat lamp for too long, and in the interests of saving room for dessert, I skipped them.

As I went back to fill my plate at the dessert station (this was at lunch, mind you), it occurred to me that if my college dining hall had been this good, I probably would’ve gained the “freshman 15” and then some. I guess the cereal diet had its advantages, after all.