Lunch at the Faculty Center

Fink Gets His Second Chair

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Hollander and Hume began the scheming in the spring. With the closing of the Faculty Eatery, there was significant concern for the effect on Fink. With judicious planning, they managed to secure his chair from certain demise. During a college wide faculty meeting on Wednesday, it was ceremoniously presented.

Rest In Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:27:00 +0000

My Last LATFC

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Russell) — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:06:00 +0000

I didn't realize it at the time, but earlier this week I ate my Last Faculty Center Lunch. It consisted of a turkey sandwich with lettuce and cheese, a bag of baked Lays, and water with lemon.

Fittingly enough, it was unremarkable.

The Last Lemon Bar

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Tomorrow our ritual dies. There will be no more Faculty Eatery. The
oak panelling will no longer absorb the odors and laughter.

With great trepidation, with great desire for a bit of joyful closure
I selected one last tin of lemon bars.

I finished my meal (not bad, if you've ever enjoyed salt cod) and
creaked open the plastic. A fork slid in ... and was repulsed. As if
it had hit rubber.

I dug deeper, I raised the cakey substance and bit in. A chemically
midness with an acrid finish.

Alas, the last lemon bar was unedible and left to be swept away with
the day's debris.

My time here is done. Burritos from Tate or fried pickles from the
Blind Pig call.

Two weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:57:00 +0000

With just a few days left, I have decided to reenter the Lemon Bar Fray.

And, based on today's offering, I am okay with them closing.

And soon.

Twelve!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:36:00 +0000

Only 12 meal days remain at our favorite dining establishment. The place closes, supposedly forever, on May 8.

May 8!!!

On that day, everyone (yes, that means you) is expected to give TFC a fine send-off. Heck, it's meatloaf/fried chicken day. What more could ya want? Er, yeah ... lemon bars ... sorry, they're not normally found on Fridays except in a less-than-lemony-but-somewhat-stale state. Maybe we can buy some earlier in the week and bring 'em in.

What else happened on May 8?

The first Westminster Dog Show was held (1877)
VE Day (1945)
The Wounded Knee occupation ended (1973)
The Citadel graduated its first female cadet (1999)
The Faculty Center closed forever (2009)

May 8

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:09:00 +0000

LATFC will end Friday, May 8. I learned this from a nice email from J. Michael Floyd, executive director of food services at UGA.

Below, some info on the new place:

The new faculty/staff/student cafe operation in the new Tate renovation named "The Taste of Home Cafe" will be open prior to the beginning of Fall semester. At this time we have not finalize this date yet. There will be two food operations opening in the new Tate center- "Tate Cafe" and the "Taste of Home Cafe".

The Taste of Home cafe will feature recipes that we have received over the last 21 years from student's parents for our Taste of Home special event in the Dining Commons.

More later on plans to commemorate the final meal at our favorite faculty center on the UGA campus that is located across the street from Grady and serves lemon bars a couple of times a week.

Email Response -- Not

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I emailed the food services folks to ask what the final day of the Faculty Center would be. That was a week or so ago.

Still no response.

Either they don't read email, they don't respond to email, they don't know, or they don't care. But some of us do. It'll be a going-away party for the place, a last chance at Zen of Lem(on), an opportunity to sit and dread having to eat in a mall-like food court with (gasp!) students, spending way too much money for lunch.

I'll email someone else at the food services mother ship this week and try to get a last date. Some reports have it June 1, end of Maymester, but they might sneak it in at the last day of Spring semester and not tell us. That'd be the UGA way.

Stay tuned, LATFC fans. Once we know the day, party planning begins.

BDC

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Two of the three members of the BDC (best damn curriculum?) committee were present today at LATFC (along with Hollander and Russell).

Johnson, a proud BDCer along with Hume, passed on the lemon bar. After having the perfect bar last week he didn't dare risk having another. Good thing. I found the bar lacking and Russell ate only one of the two generously provided in the clear plastic case. The leftover may escape and become a free range lemon bar.

Some talk of a Grady Recipe Book, and how lemon bars will deserve their own chapter.

BDC actually stands for Bile Distillation Committee. It's a long story.

You Should Have Been There

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Perhaps, in all honesty, the finest lemon bar I have ever had. It had a pastry-like crust topped with a smooth, tart lemon filling and was then lightly washed in powdered sugar.

It was elegant.

No Flying Chairs

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:23:00 +0000

LATFC today. Sitting nearby, soon-to-be-infamous basketball Coach C. No chairs thrown. Or spinach. Tickets still available when he kinda sorta coaches the UGA women's basketball team to victory over LSWho.

LATFC meets Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Read on Twitter today:

Dear Faculty Center: running hot water over the green beans does not qualify as cooking. Just fyi.

Web 2.0? Fergitaboutit. This is FacultyCenter 2.0.

No LATFC for Me

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:55:00 +0000

Met wife unit at Siri Thai for lunch. Pad duck basil, spring roll & soup as appetizers. Oh so good.

Cornbread and Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Had chili and cornbread. Hume ate sandwich of unknown make. In honor of my cornbread for lunch:

The Last Semester

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Today we gently broke the news to Prof. Fink that the Faculty Center will close. While he showed no tears, his pain was obvious. Or maybe that was the Lima beans. Hard to say.

Johnson knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows Rachael Ray, or at least says he does. She may be the world's most reviled chef, as one article suggests, but that makes her perfect to review LATFC. After a guest post like that and the closing down of the place, we can put this blog down like a bad dog.

Misled

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:23:00 +0000

At lunch on my favorite day - Lemon Bar Day, Thursday. It had been
seemingly weeks since my last lemon bar encounter.

And then a dilemma -

The End is Nigh

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:22:00 +0000

Hume to Russell over chili and salad:

It's time for the semester to be over because I'm even irritated with YOUR students.

Students, you've been warned.

A Very Lemony Bar

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Had the most lemony of lemon bars today. Still hungry after my meal, I went for a cup of coffee and a lemon bar. Hume also went for a cup of tea.

Lemon-spiked tea.

Coincidence? I wonder . . .

Lemon Bar Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:55:00 +0000

BULLETIN: Hume eats lemon bar, declares, "There is no lemon here."

Live Lemon News

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:34:00 +0000

BULLETIN: The depth of the lemon bar this week vastly exceeds any
other week. Details to follow.

Roofs and Discs

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Johnson and I ate a quick lunch at TFC. Hume suspiciously absent, no doubt recovering from her Left Coast visit. I had the veggie lunch: rosemary potatoes (kinda chewy), carrots (nicely done), and green beans (no real taste at all, but they were green).

Discussion of legal and financial and ethical and criminal strategies involving certain individuals not of the Athens area, with no real solution reached. Also discussed roofs. And did higher level math, figuring out what a bejillion megs of digital photographs would look like if you stuck 'em on 5.25-inch discs and stacked them into what turns out to be (if our math was right) something like 900 feet high. Checked office later for said type of disc for a later show-and-tell. No luck.

From the mouths of babes...

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Russell) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Despite the tragedy that befell Johnson on Thursday, the Eatery did provide its patrons with lemon bars on Friday.

My daughter, who is almost 4, made her first (and last?) visit to the Faculty Center on Friday. After much deliberation, she chose macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, and a lemon bar for lunch. After she pretty much cleaned her plate, we turned to the great lemon experiment. Hume and I, being scholars, probed her reaction to the lemonicity of said bars. Her response:

"Where is the lemon in this?"

Stunned Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:18:00 +0000

I suppose it is entirely possible that the last entry demoralized all of us so badly that we have sulked off into silent corners. Which, to be honest, is pretty much true ...

But the final insult happened on Thursday, the one insult that could make me not lament the loss of The Eatery, the one that could let its demise come to be without a single protest.

It was Thursday, and there were no lemon bars. Not. A. One.

I suffered through the cherry pie which, to be fully honest, may have had a higher level of lemonicity than some of the lemon bars of the past.

Criminal, border line criminal.

BREAKING NEWS: FACULTY EATERY TO CLOSE

noreply@blogger.com (Mark E. Johnson) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:08:00 +0000

An inside source with knowledge of the University of Georgia Food Services empire has confirmed that the Faculty Eatery will close around June 1, 2009. The source said the closing was due to multiple reasons, including persistent financial losses and health code issues.

The replacement space will be on the fourth floor of the new Tate II center, scheduled to open in 2009. The new eatery will forego the oak paneling and cathedral ceilings in favor of an open floor space.

The third floor of Tate II will also feature a food court, complete with a Barberitos and an Inoko Express-like stand.

Fears are already spreading that this will hasten the retirement of Prof. Conrad Fink.

Meeting 1, Lemon 0

noreply@blogger.com (Hollander) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:56:00 +0000

Today's lemon bars may be the best I've had at TFC. Perfectly baked, good texture, hint of lemon. Maybe I was just hungry and I have only one data point: no one else at my table had 'em. fyi, those present: Hume (veggies), Martin, and Russell (suspiciously similar sandwiches).

I followed this joy of lemonocity with a department meeting, which counteracts any dessert (or caffeine, for that matter).

Much discussion of Sarah Palin's speech, some Democratic gnashing of teeth. Or maybe the food was chewy.