We'll admit that when we think "cafeteria" we have unsettling flashbacks to a. elementary school and b. too much television coverage of a slaughter at a certain Luby's, a couple decades back. But hey, different strokes and all that. It'll be interesting to see what sort of information he forks over.
Jensen is a senior in the Urban & Metropolitan Studies program on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. "I'm not a self-described 'foodie' but I know what I like when it comes to food and I'm sure that there are others that have similar tastes," he says.
He's already got a good number of followers on Facebook, one of whom posted the image above, from a long-ago downtown cafeteria.
In the interest of "scientific experiment" -- and mainly because we couldn't think of more than a handful of public cafeterias in what's typically considered "downtown," we had a couple questions for Jensen.
What is your definition of downtown Phoenix?
My definition of downtown Phoenix is not particularly a geographic idea but
a mindset. If you like small eateries, if you like not having to drive from
point A to point B all the time, and if you like taking part in the
renaissance experiment that is "urban Phoenix," then that's downtown
Phoenix. Though, if I had to assign geographic boundaries, it's Central
Avenue from Buckeye Road to Camelback Road, and 3-5 blocks east and west of
Central.
A cafeteria?
My definition of a cafeteria is a place where you can serve yourself (generally), choose from many different diverse items, and then pay a cashier when you're all finished. There might be a grill for hamburgers, a salad bar, a place to get pizza, and so on.
And what's your favorite cafeteria meal, so far?
It's a tie between Phoenix City Hall Grill (10th floor of Phoenix City Hall, 200 W Washington St) on Thursdays and the State Capitol Executive Tower basement cafeteria (1700 W Washington St) on Wednesdays. The common thread? It's Mexican Food Day, where these eateries have better-than-usual food and generous portions of Mexican cuisine staples. Me? I prefer the taco salad.
