Students behind counter to solve 13th Street woes

I love the idea of having a sandwich shop on campus as a readily available alternative to servery food. I applaud 13th Street as the only on-campus food provider open to the general public for extended hours — unlike Sammy’s and Willy’s Pub, which have limited hours. However, over the last few months, I have become more and more dissatisfied with the quality of food and service at 13th Street.

When 13th Street opened at the beginning of the Fall 2005 semester, both the quality and selection of sandwiches were excellent. These days, the six varieties of sturdy, square buns have been replaced by a series of inferior alternatives. First there were overly crumbly white and wheat bread and impossible-to-bite-into ciabatta rolls. And now there is the type of sandwich bread bought by the loaf in a store or offered in the serveries’ make-your-own-sandwich bars. The buns themselves would not prompt this complaint were it not for the blatantly less-than-fresh lettuce, tomatoes, tuna salad and other ingredients. Lettuce is often noticeably browned — even more so than servery salad at 7:15 p.m. And the tuna salad is not only spread sparsely, but it also rarely tastes fresh.

However, even with less-than-wholesome ingredients, I would not have an issue with 13th Street were it not for the lackluster service. 13th Street is the only fast-food-type eatery I know where a customer has to wait at least 10 minutes for her order regardless of whether there are 10 or 0 other customers present. This makes patronizing 13th Street hardly convenient for Rice students, faculty, employees and other folks in a time crunch between classes, work or other engagements.

The bad service from 13th Street offers more for anecdotes than it does for sandwiches. In addition to employees losing order forms somewhere in the trip between the customers’ hands and their hands, I have put up with incorrect condiments — including a piece of filter paper stuck to a slice of cheese — and general confusion over simple sandwich requests. In one case, I had an employee ask me if I did indeed want two sandwiches since I handed him two order forms.

What do I suggest the management of 13th Street do to ameliorate these issues? I propose they place more emphasis on quality ingredients and quality service. Although there are signs prominently displayed in the store providing an e-mail address and phone number to which comments should be directed, the comments I sent via e-mail in early November have gone unacknowledged. A friend who also sent comments about 13th Street’s service did not receive a response. This forces me to assume that their customer feedback mechanisms need to be restructured or given more weight.

A Thresher article about 13th Street mentioned that while employees would initially be people from off-campus, the management would consider hiring Rice students (“‘13th Street’ to replace Subway,” Aug. 19, 2005). I believe the time to start hiring students is now and that this would be the ideal way to improve service. Rice students are generally a hardworking, motivated and witty crowd, and incorporating them into the staff of 13th Street would integrate students’ opinions and perspectives into the establishment. Throw in some perks like free sandwiches, snacks and smoothies, and I am sure there will be takers.

Overall, 13th Street is a fine establishment that provides a valuable service to Rice students, faculty and staff. However, with some additional consideration and work on the part of the management, it has the opportunity of becoming a great or even excellent establishment that will serve Rice well into the future. It is my hope that the staff of 13th Street will consider customer feedback to improve the quality of their food and service and start hiring Rice students as employees as a way to more fully work itself into the Rice community.

Emilia Calvaresi is a Jones College sophomore.

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