Crossroads Café Opens for New Year

On Monday, Sept. 24, Crossroads Café reopened its doors to the college community, boasting upgraded food and more student-friendly hours.

Originally scheduled to open on Sept. 19, the opening was delayed by small technical snafus, but was fully operational for student enjoyment starting Monday.

"We've created [work] schedules, put everything back together and hired people," said Front Server Manager Jessie Lussier ’13 of the work that has gone into preparing the venue. "We had 18 employees last year, and came back with only 10," she added, noting that having to find employees has been an obstacle to opening.

In only its third year of operation, Crossroads still has not established a consistent set-up protocol for the venue, which has proven another challenge for the staff. Current managers must figure things out as they go along, taking notes from their predecessors. The managers say they hope that in the future Crossroads will have a mentor or overseer who could provide consistency even as the staff changes, but that position has not yet been established.

Along with staff changes, Crossroads will be making changes to its menu items this year .

One of the highlights is the updated smoothie line.

"We're adding boosters to the smoothies," explained Food and Operations Manager Craig Thompson ’13.5.

Students will be able to add ingredients, such as protein. In addition to the boosters, Culinary Manager Cayla Marvil ’13.5 said that new flavors like passion fruit and pineapple will be available.

The staff has also made improvements to the popular noodle bowls and altered the pricing of other items. The price of the cookies, which are one of the venue's biggest sellers, have been reduced from $1.50 apiece to only 99 cents.

In the past, Crossroads has suffered complaints from students for running out of items, but the management hopes to avoid this problem by setting new policies to prevent food shortages.

"Our goal this year is not to run out of stuff," Thompson said.

In addition to food improvements, the management has made changes to accommodate other student needs.

New hours will allow more students to benefit from the venue’s atmosphere.

"The environment is really calm and relaxed; it doesn't have all the tension of the library," said Holly Burke ’15.

The venue will be open for student use from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.