For an entire week, I decided to take a break from dining hall food, more specifically Foothill dining hall food. Instead, I ate healthily at Smart Alec’s on Telegraph. I would usually go there for lunch. Smart Alec’s is in the middle of everything that happens on Telegraph. It has been open for about 13 years, and even after the health violation incident in October1, it is still packed with customers. Immediately, when you walk in there, you see a huge menu with a variety of choices to choose from. Decisions, decisions... After you order your food, you’re given a receipt with your order number and a bit of advice: “Eat Smart!! :-)”. They only take cash, so I had to make sure I had enough cash first. I decided to order the Big A Burger Combo. The Big A burger is the veggie burger that allegedly made Smart Alec’s famous. I ordered garlic fries with it, and extra cheese.
After my number was called, I needed to find a place to sit. There were so many nice spots to sit, enjoy my meal, and people watch. So many different types of people and personalities always pass by on the streets.
Most of the time, there it’s a mix of Cal students, street vendors, and the homeless. Some people are in suits, some wear skinny jeans with flip-flops, and others are just in shorts and a Cal sweatshirt. The food was OK. The Big A burger was on whole wheat bread and everything tasted fresh. It was certainly better than Cal dining food, but the burger wasn’t the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. The garlic fries are amazing (but only if you’re a true garlic fan.) They weren’t those generic fries with garlic powder. They were legit baked fries mixed with fresh garlic. Needless to say, I needed to chew A LOT of gum before the garlic taste left my mouth.
On Day 2, I wanted to eat there for breakfast, but I realized that Smart Alec’s opens at 11am. So I just went back on Day 3 for a late lunch. The entire building and restaurant set up reminded me of Greenwich Village in New York City. There were real plants and paintings of avocado and eggplant. The street sides of the restaurant were all windows. The sun shown in on all sides, and it had a natural, earthy ethos filled with different shades of yellow, red, brown, and hints of green. It feels appropriate to be eating healthily in such a warm atmosphere. It is a great place to relax on a sunny afternoon when there aren’t a lot of people there. Anyways, the one thing I noticed was that there was always 80s pop music playing in the background. It didn’t seem to fit. I see life as a movie and music as the soundtrack to life. The Cure’s “Love Song”, Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, and Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams” aren’t the first things that pop into my head when I think of veggie burgers on whole wheat. On the other hand, I love those songs. The 80s music made me feel nostalgic and it provided some comfort when I was eating all by my lonesome self.
On Day 3, I decided to order a soup and salad combo. The combo consisted of Corn Chowda (you can actually see the kernels), a Caesar Salad, and freshly made corn bread. The Corn Chowder was surprisingly good. It looked like a pile of goo, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t like the Caesar salad too much. Although I would once again like to note that this Caesar Salad was a million times better than the Caesar Salad in the dining hall. The cornbread was excellent. It reminded me of Thanksgiving, especially since all the warm colors in the restaurant were autumn colors. Although that made me slightly sad because I will not be going home to New England this Thanksgiving :( . When I was sitting there I also saw a lot of children with their parents. I saw one father/daughter pair, and it reminded me of when I was little and spent quality time with my dad. My dad used to take me to places around New York City and just eat. Those were the good days when I was spoiled.
I decided to go back there for dinner the next day to observe any differences in the atmosphere. It was extremely different at night. There were a lot of college students eating there, but there were also a lot of professionals in suits, as well as middle-aged people. The line was long, and people usually came in big groups. I went in knowing exactly what I wanted. I came starving from class. The line wasn’t too bad when I got there, but I had to wait super long because the one cashier was busy flirting with the guy in front of me. A lot of people were coming in, but they were busy talking about some party -.- What the hell? I was getting really annoyed. I was really hungry. I finally got to order a Basil Chicken Burger Combo with Smart Alec’s famous Smart Fries, which are air-baked. The burger was awesome. The fries were just what I needed. The portions are massive, but I finished the entire meal. It was interesting to be sitting in a corner watching everyone else. Normally, when I would go to Smart Alec’s, there wouldn’t be a lot of people there. But there were a lot of people there for dinner. During the day, there would be a lot of people there alone. For dinner, everyone there was with someone else. Every time I overheard a conversation, it would be about food. However, that makes sense because it is a restaurant and the food is pretty good.
Regardless, I would like to question how healthy the food really is. I am sure it is healthier than the food in the dining halls; but on Day 5, I ordered chili cheese fries and after that meal I felt a little sick. There was so much oil and cheese on it. I even tried to remove some of the oil with a napkin, but I epically failed. A large amount of cheese melted onto the napkin, and there was still a lot of oil on my food. It was ridiculously oily.
Consequently, I decided to order something really nutritious the next day. I went to Sunday brunch with my roommate, and I ordered a Tofu and Avocado Sandwich combo. It was grilled marinated tofu and avocado on whole wheat bread with Smart Fries. The sandwich was the best Smart Alec’s sandwich I have ever had. There were a lot of people there for Sunday brunch, but it still wasn’t as crazy as dinnertime. There were people who were able to study and a lot of old people. On Sunday, people seemed to be dressed nicely, myself included. I was wearing a skirt, and so was almost every other girl in the restaurant. Right before I left, I saw a time capsule on the floor of the restaurant. I was greatly intrigued by it. Why would anyone put a time capsule in a random spot on the floor in Smart Alec’s?
On the last day, I decided to order vegetable soup because I had a sore throat. It was really good. It doesn’t look very delectable from the picture, but it was tremendously scrumptious. What is even better is when you dip corn bread into the soup and let it soak up a bit. It was the best meal I ever had at Smart Alec’s. It’s interesting how the simplest combo is the best combo. I also ordered a brownie, and it was one of the best brownies I have ever had. Ever. Overall, Smart Alec’s is a great place to eat. If you go in the afternoon, it is also a great place to study and just relax with a couple friends. The food is amazing. Eating there is an integral part of “the Berkeley experience.”2 To say the least, I regretted going back to Foothill dining hall food the next day.
Sources:
1 http://www.dailycal.org/article/106999/health_violation_briefly_closes_local_restaurant
2 http://www.yelp.com/biz/smart-alecs-intelligent-food-berkeley
Natschja spent her week not only sitting and observing at Smart Alec’s but actually spending her own money in order to eat a meal everyday there and get in touch more with the food. I like that she did this because it brings another aspect to her narrative and immerses herself into what it really means to be at this restaurant, a costumer. A lot of the other blogs focused on the people and sights, but she got right to the heart of the restaurant, the food. The way in which she had a picture to go along with almost everything she described, Smart Alec’s in the day versus in the night, each meal she had, the time capsule, reminded me of the way the text Circulating Reference used its own images. If you just looked at the photos, you would follow the same order and description of the text. She surrounded her narrative mostly around the successive meals she had which reminded me of the connections in an “unfinished world”. Each meal that she had was a new connection for the reader and added to the overall feeling about Smart Alec’s choice of food. Describing the good and bad aspects altered the reader’s feelings about it as they read along. It was also the mention of the music, art work, and types of people seen there that were connections, each one adding to a better understanding of Smart Alec’s as a whole. Smart Alec’s becomes this “unfinished world”, forever changing with each costumer and service. When I think of Smart Alec’s I think of somewhat of a chaotic restaurant with a lot of things to take in at once, however with her style and progression through her text, Natschja easily makes the disorderly seem orderly.
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