Upon walking into Lakeside Dining Hall, one is stopped by the determined Maître D's, nice tablecloths and well-dressed servers promoting the new, upscale, restaurant on campus, Maea. Although Maea is very conveniently placed, students riot its location, because of interference of socializing, late night eating, and feasible pricings. Maea has taken the place of the affordable and student loved Lakeside Diner. Not only was Lakeside Diner an eating facility, it also allowed students to socialize without having to swipe their ACT card. Students have gone to great measures to eliminate the continuance of this fancy restaurant, and hopefully will bring Lakeside Diner back on the scene.
Maea is a classy, sit down restaurant on the campus of The University of Alabama, located in the upstairs of the Lakeside Dining Hall beside the Marketplace. Its purpose is to bring an upscale eatery to the University of Alabama. They have a decent range of food styles from steaks to poboys, nachos to burgers, and noodles to fried green tomatoes. There are appetizers, salads, sandwiches, entrées and three desserts to choose from. Junior, Brandon Feazell said, “The food at Maea is good, but we are college students and don’t really need fine dining.” Junior, T.J. Skrodzki stated, “Bama Dining says they wanted to make it [classier], but honestly, I do not care about class in my 2 a.m. dining choices.”
With students wanting a midnight snack that is convenient, another tactic used by various students to eliminate Maea is the creating of a Facebook group entitled Boycott Maea. This group as of today has 1,171 members. This group features students who refuse to eat at Maea because they wanted the usual fried chicken fingers, waffles and Philly cheese steaks, offered at the Lakeside Diner at any time of the night exceeding until 3am. Junior, Donna Lawrence stated, “We don't want a cheesy sit down restaurant that doesn't even take meal plans. We didn't mind waiting a few minutes in a line to get our food because that food was worth waiting for.” Sean Randall stated, “The atmosphere is also a bit awkward, as you have a fancy meal in front of you and a bird’s eye view of the clamor and bustle of Lakeside Dining Hall. The noise carries a bit, so the less-than-fancy setting offsets the fancy food.”
The “awkward” setting is not even one of the major problems to this new facility. When paying for a meal at Maea it is important to have an adequate amount of Dining Dollars and Bama Cash, seeing that Maea only takes Dining Dollars and Bama Cashm, not meal plans. Sophomore Donnell Foster said, “I’ve eaten there four times and found myself down by about 75 dollars in Dining Dollars.” Maea’s Appetizers run from $4 to $8. Salads go from $5 to $9. Sandwiches are between $7 and $9. Entrées have three prices: $9, $12 and $14, and the three desserts are $4, $5 and $6. Want to add chicken to your salad? That's $2 extra. Shrimp: $5. With all of those many options once you add tax and toggle in gratuity, you are probably looking at a $15 plus meal. For the student with a limited budget, this is a once every month or two deal. Senior Elizabeth Yarbrough stated, “I don’t eat at Maea because the lack of quality of food. Swordfish at Maea is around twenty dollars, when in other restaurants it’s much pricier. I do not want to be eating swordfish that is not as good as the swordfish I have eaten at other restaurants.”
The expensive price range and lack of quality of food is angering to students, but the timing of this year’s dining halls because of Maea have made many people upset. Maea is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. With this timing schedule it has affected all of the dining hall closing times. Lakeside Dining Hall is now where the Diner resides, the Dining Hall closes an hour and a half earlier than it used to, at 8:30 p.m. Burke also closes an hour and a half earlier than it was last year, also at 8:30 p.m. This means Maea and Buffalo Phil’s are the only eating places on campus open from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Luckily Lakeside Dining Hall reopens as Lakeside Diner from 10pm to 1am, with grill style food every Sunday through Thursday. Lakeside Diner previously opened at 5pm and close at 3am every day. It was the spot to socialize at night without having to swipe your card. The timing was so convenient, that after late ending social events, instead of going to the traditional IHOP and Waffle House students would venture to the desirable Lakeside Diner.
Overall, more students are not necessarily displeased with Maea, they just would like for it to be placed in a different location. With Maea being in the location of Lakeside Dining Hall it has sent a sudden uprising amongst some of the students of The University of Alabama. Students now have to swipe their ACT card to socialize and get in Lakeside Diner before the designated closing times. Although some students wanted a classier sit-down restaurant, I doubt they wanted it with all the many sacrifices Bama Dining decided to add. The prices are a bit excruciating for an average college student and the atmosphere is demeaning, towering over the populated Lakeside Dining Hall. Sophomore Justin Meek stated, “I really miss all of the options of Lakeside Diner, and watching television on the big screen while I talk with my friends.” Students are determined to emit an entrance for change, and hopefully the original Lakeside Diner will be back into existence.
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