Wonder how the new cafeteria will impact surrounding restaurants

April 6, 2007

Even before I started working here last year, my employer has been slowly restoring a set of old buildings adjacent to the headquarters.  I’m almost certain they could have got something built a lot faster by just tearing down the dilapidated old buildings and starting from scratch, but they wanted to maintain at least the facade from the old buildings.  Finally the renovation is nearing completion.

I just learned that one of the items in the renovation will be a cafeteria on the 2nd floor.  First time that we’ve ever had a company cafeteria.  It looks like it might be a tad upscale, for one thing they’re calling it a “servery” which sounds kinda snooty.  And the photos they unveiled look pretty swank.  Plus the little kiosk announcing the new servery indicated that this operation has an executive chef.  Somebody who trained at the New England Culinary Institute up in Vermont.  I don’t think a plain old cafeteria would need an executive chef, so I’m hoping this means it will serve up some interesting foods.

The thing is, we’re a big employer in this part of town.  If a lot of people from the company start eating lunch at this servery it’s going to impact all the nearby restaurants.  But then again, it’s not a Google-style free cafeteria, they will charge probably normal.  And if it is upscale then it might also be a bit pricey which would lessen the impact at least for the cheap restaurants in this area.

I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out.  I think the sign said the cafeteria, sorry, the servery, opens next week.  And the official dedication is the week after, with mayor-for-life Jerry Abrahamson in attendance.