The Local Flavor

Author: Andrea Glaessner

For those poor souls who have visited Dr. Feel Good so many times that it has finally lost its luster, fear not. Now there is hope for taste buds burnt out on the tasty but all too familiar Grille menu. Patrons of the College restaurant were welcomed back from break with a brand new menu featuring most of the old favorites and a plethora of new items to try out this spring. The atmosphere is unchanged, but the menu is groundbreaking, featuring many more salads, an improved create-your-own sandwich menu and a slew of new oven-toasted sandwiches, many of which have the potential to become stiff competition for the Dr. Feel Good and other favorites.

The Godfather is one of the new creations featured on the oven-toasted sandwich menu. It is a sandwich packed with salami, ham, pepperoni, provolone cheese and cherry peppers. Sounds like a lot of meat, but the proportions are actually perfect. The crunchy bread complements the soft, meaty center that packs a punch with the spicy cherry peppers. This sandwich is not recommended for the faint of heart. The Godfather does not make exceptions for people who prefer mild spices, but if you can handle it, it will handle your hunger.

Luckily, the new menu offers something for everyone. Vegetarians will be thrilled to find a new and improved Portobello sandwich topped with onions, peppers, provolone and horseradish mayo. The homemade falafel is another great entrée for vegetarians. The dish comes with four falafel balls, lettuce, tomato, onions, dipping sauce and toasted pita bread. Do beware of the Little Nicky, a sandwich with fried eggplant and three cheeses. The eggplant was great but the cheese was still frozen in the middle. It was pretty decent, but make sure the cheese is really melted before you eat.

For health-conscious customers, there are many new salads such as the healthy salmon salad with honey Dijon vinaigrette, the delicious Szechwan stir-fry salad with black beans and the new hummus salad with grilled vegetables. There is also a new Ahi Tuna wrap with wasabi mayonnaise. The wasabi mayonnaise was delightful, but the tuna was a little dry and bears a closer resemblance to canned Chicken of the Sea rather than the advertised fresh seared tuna. It would definitely be better with more of the wasabi mayonnaise, so ask for more on the side.

If you're just looking for a quick snack, all the favorites are still there, except the pizza bites. Choose from mozzarella sticks, fries, sweet potato fries or Ethan's Vt. Cheddar fries. The cheddar fries are not really new, but the name is, and perhaps they are an improved version of the old standard cheese fries. Another great new addition is that fries can be substituted for the usual potato chips for just 75 cents.

And if you want to order for a crowd, The Grille makes pizzas that can be ordered ahead of time. Middlebury suffers from a lack of good pizza, and although The Grille is no New York City pizzeria, the pizza is decent. For a mere $12 you can get a large pizza with toppings to your heart's content or a large "white pizza" that rivals Neil and Otto's infamous pizza sticks.

So if you are like so many others suffering from mid-year culinary boredom you need not walk further than McCullough to find a respite from the dining hall blues.