A quick review of The Maroon this year will show that there has been plenty written about the Orleans Room. However, the vast majority of these articles have focused exclusively on the seating mayhem and unionizing.
Instead of furthering those polemics, I would like to address something different that I noticed in the past couple of weeks.
The OR is an all you can eat buffet, and by definition everyone expects to be able to eat as much as they want. Unfortunately, several times in the past week, the O. R. has run out of main courses, salad and/or other staples.
On those days, you are lucky to find something to eat (especially if you are of the vegan persuasion and the vegan station is closed); never mind finding enough food to be considered “all you can eat.”
As the amount of people that eat in the O.R. varies greatly depending on special events and the amount of Tulane students that decide to show up on a given day, I don’t expect the O.R. to be able predict the perfect amount of any one meal to prepare. However, it would be nice if they let us know, before entering the O.R., what they are out of.
The solution can be as simple as the cashier informing you that there is no more entree left, or that the vegan station is no longer serving; or perhaps the O.R. can put up a sign what they are out of even before you stand in line.
Those of us using meals from our meal plan may not initially see the issue. If the O.R. is out of food, you just go somewhere else.
Because we meal planners have to use our meals in the O.R., due to a lack rollover, the costs of the O.R. are convoluted.
Meal plan owners have already paid, so anything that a meal planner can get from the O.R. is worth more than not going. However, for people paying for the O.R., or with block plans, not knowing that there is not enough food before they pay is more of an issue.
In my opinion, paying for an all you can eat buffet puts you into a sacred trust with the buffet operators. You trust that they have enough food to keep you satisfied. If they break that trust, you should get your money back.
Unless of course the buffet warns you ahead of time that they are out of the entree, salad, etc. This strikes me as a common courtesy. McDonald’s doesn’t sell you the burger and then say, “actually we don’t have any burgers, how about two boxes of fries? We’ll super size them…”
Luckily, and in all seriousness, the O.R. has an effective customer feedback system. Those little cards that sit on the tables have gotten us soymilk and fresh made pancakes with fruit inside. Let’s use the cards to get us a system that alerts us the next time the O.R. has run out of the entree and replaced it with hamburger meat sans buns as a backup.
Zack Lombardo can be reached at [email protected]
