Sitting at a table in the corner of the Everett Kovler Cafe, senior Adnan Werdyani takes a bite into a crispy chicken strip. While the Lab cafeteria offers chicken strips, Adnan chooses to eat at the university building. Students refer to this dining spot in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with one simple word: Booth.
Adnan is one of the dozens of U-High students who crowd the cafe tables during the lunch period, chattering with friends about their school days, playing cards and doing homework.
While lunch in the Booth cafe has been an option for many years, this year, there has been a noticeable influx of U-High students eating there.
Adnan suspects that more students are eating lunch at Booth due to the cellphone ban.
“I noticed a lot of Lab students coming here to Booth, not only to get lunch but mainly just to use their phones,” he said.
Adnan chooses to eat food at Booth for the quality of food, and he especially savors the poke bowl and taco bar.
“They put a lot of effort into the food here. They make it in front of you, and all of the food is fresh,” Adnan said.“I like how they kind of have world cuisine in a way.”
In contrast, senior Jonah Austen eats at Booth not only because of the food selection, but also because of the academic atmosphere.
”A lot of people have been going to the cafeteria forever, and there it seems younger,” Jonah said. At Booth, “we are around more adults, we feel older and more mature. Upperclassmen come here more frequently than younger students, and they get to enjoy feeling more pre-professional, like they’re going to go into college.”
Ethan Tyler, U-High Class of 2018, is starting his first year at the Booth School of Business and remembers eating at the cafe during his time at U-High. He recalled more restrictions on the number of students who could eat at Booth.
“I think the school tried to restrict us from going over here, so they would have some of the high school teachers monitor and make sure that we weren’t over here,” Mr. Tyler said. “A bunch of us would come over for lunch. It was usually the juniors and seniors. If we had free periods too, it was a nice place to get away.”
The policy regarding U-High students eating lunch at the Everett Kovler Cafe is that they can purchase food and eat it in the cafe, but not in the winter garden or other lounges, explained Kari McDonough, director of facilities at Booth.
While Ms. McDonough has noticed an increase in U-High students at Booth, she said it was “good for business” and that this year in particular, students have been behaving “really well.”
U-High Dean of Students Ana Campos said Lab’s policy is that students can go wherever they would like for lunch. However, if a student is misbehaving at a facility, they will contact her.
“Certainly, if our students are creating any kind of issue or problem in another facility on campus, and they tell me who the students are, then I’ll address it,” Ms. Campos said.
Despite the influx of students at Booth, Ms. Campos believes that a similar number of people continue to eat lunch in Café Lab, the only place and time where students can use their cellphones.
“When I am in the cafe, it doesn’t look different from past years. If anything, there are more kids in the cafe during non-lunch periods than there have been in the last number of years,” she said.
Ms. Campos predicts the number of students leaving campus for lunch will naturally decrease as the school year goes on.
She said, “As students get busier, as people get more accustomed to the policy, as the weather changes, as clubs get more active, I don’t know if there will continue to be some greater number of students who leave.”
