Order’s Up! Crossroads Serves Experiments in a Mug

From a swimming pool, to a juice bar, to finally our beloved Crossroads, the cozy downstairs McCullough Student Space has undergone many transformations. Perhaps best-known for its refreshing fruit smoothies that have withstood the changing menus, Crossroads has become a favorite hang-out spot of students and professors for its quiet, yet social atmosphere and the Crossroads offerings of drinks and pick-me-up’s.

Crossroads Café, the brainchild of a student business plan competition, opened in the spring of 2011. According to co-manager Jack Hunsicker ’15, last year the café quadrupled its net sales and tripled its customer count in the space.

“I think the biggest transformation that has happened so far is the atmosphere at Crossroads,” co-manager Naila Jahan ’15 said. I remember when I was a freshman working here I would work shifts where I would serve maybe one customer and see just that one person actually utilizing our space. It’s so great to see that after three years of working here, Crossroads is now this huge hub of students. Just seeing that kind of community grow here has been really awesome. When I was a freshman Crossroads was viewed as this whole dying establishment.”

While Crossroads has always been student-run under the supervision of the College Retail Operations, it has evolved greatly since its inception. Last year saw perhaps the most drastic of changes, as prepared and design-your-own meal bowls were eliminated from the menu in favor of a stronger focus on drinks.

Bubble tea, kombucha, lemonade, specialty iced teas and different kinds of hot chocolate are some of the newest additions to the menu.

Paul Noah ’15 who works at Crossroads admits that he really likes the focus on drinks and says it makes his job more interesting.

“The hot food was not as popular as we wanted it to be and the waste was really disheartening,” Jahan said.

The experiential drinks and foods Crossroads is ringing up aren’t the only things keeping students coming back. Others like Jake Brown ’14.5 are drawn mostly to the lively but studious atmosphere: “I like the white noise, the people, and the random encounters you can have.” He thinks that the Crossroads atmosphere has become more conducive to doing work over the years.

“It’s a very multi-purpose space,” says Ellen Bevier ’16. Many students like Bevier and Croix Callahan ’16 frequent the space a few times a week to do work or meet up with friends over a cup of Crossroads Joe.

Middlebury native Peter Lindholm ’17.5 has been coming to the Crossroads space his whole life and remembers the olden days when the space housed a juice bar and recreational room. He now visits the space to do homework and watch sports screenings.

The Crossroads menu has always been dynamic, as the cafe experimented with veggie-protein bowls, dessert bowls, soups, cake, root beer, and crepes through the years. The menu also changes depending on the students working there and their specific culinary passions which included a specialty chocolate cake the past spring.

“I was basically the only person who drank the root beer,” admits Crossroads server Jose Renderos ’16. “We reflected and then decided to pull it from the menu.”