An Ode to Temple Grill (salads)

I never thought I would find a dining experience in New Haven that was in any way shape or form comparable to the Terrace and it’s world famous Statler Salads at Cornell…but that’s score 1 for New Haven because I think they actually might have possibly done it…

Eating lunch at the Statler was an out of body, surreal experience unlike any other…Sorority girls, fraternity boys and hotelies alike all gathered around noon-time to wait on line for upwards of 30 minutes to attain a custom-made salad from one of (usually three) assembly-line like rotating employees who were usually expressing a disgruntled, sad at the world attitude because we have to be serving these snotty think they’re too good for everyone kids…A bird’s eye view of the seating area would have resembled a map like in the game of risk w/ different Greek houses occupying certain territories and looking to conquer others for more prime real estate…Although people were eating, they were really there it seemed to scope out who else was around and who who else was with…Sometimes the tension was so high it seemed like students were going to burst into a “Mean Girls” like explosion and be transformed into barbaric ravenous jungle beasts…Anyway I never saw that happen…but it could have…

Straying back into what I wanted to talk about…Temple Grill Salads actually trump Statler Salads…and although the atmosphere isn’t quite as amusing…the goodness of the salads kinda makes up for it…TG salads, like the ones at the Statler, are completely customizable and have an even wider array of fresh ingredients with no restrictions as to how crazy you can make it…The one obvious drawback is the price…which on avg. for me usually runs about $14…but it’s completely worth it…Also like the Statler, there’s a normal wait time of 20-30 minutes to sit down (more than that on the weekends) but these babies are available for pick-up and can be called in over the phone.