Walking into this campus’ cafeteria may be daunting if you’re a sophomore, but with my help you’ll be ready to take on lunch, and life — probably.

I have taken initiative, because I care–and because I consider myself a bit of a food connoisseur– and compiled a census of lunch room staples and tips.

First of all, know this and know this well, there are four lines in our main school cafeteria. In order: sandwich line one, sandwich line two, pizza/mexican line, and burger/pasta/fried food line. You will maneuver yourself through these areas for lunch each day, unless you chose to bring one from home.

I have learned from my extensive research that one can never go wrong with the two sandwich lines; after all, the sandwich is an American lunchtime classic. With options of a wrap, or even a pretzel roll, I guarantee your satisfaction no matter how sophisticated your taste buds.

In this very line, sits a big machine–no you aren’t hallucinating from lack of sleep — its true, New Trier’s very own Edy’s frozen yogurt machine, with a new and improved toppings bar coming soon. This includes caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, toasted coconut, sprinkles, mini gummi bears, and more. Can I get an amen?

Another food option within our second sandwich line is a salad bar. If only salad was a sought after item we could upgrade this front -for-healthiness into an actual salad bar with fresh ingredients, like the soon to be yogurt toppings bar. Until then, I would not recommend the stale lettuce.

If you have ventured into the pizza/mexican line, I have one question for you: do you like living? I’m also not sorry to say my research stopped at this point, I’d rather not know what lies within the confines of that territory. I have heard some stories about cardboard pizza and icy burritos.

If it were up to me, there would be three sandwich lines, one taking the place of this spot. I mean, shorter lines for the best food. Can we not all agree?

Our mish mosh of a fourth line includes a make-your-own hamburger station, pasta, and “fried food.” When I say fried food, I literally mean just that, as in you can buy macaroni and cheese fried into a ball. (Which I heard is good, quite contrary to my previous inclination.)

A series of sources (your fellow peers) gave me lists of their favorite food options and more times than not, pasta made the list. Every Tuesday, however, the cafe serves macaroni and cheese instead of the pasta. To put it simply, that is a less popular item.
Anyone who is anyone must know a simple Winnetka rule regarding the cafe: if you are in line solely to buy a bag of chips and are waiting in line for students to decide on red sauce or white it is okay to cut them. Walk ahead and get your chips. You’re following the Winnetka lunch line protocol; it’s in the rule book.

Things get tricky, though, when taking into consideration the array of other places from which to purchase food in the school. Some of you have passed another venue right by our main cafeteria: the small cafe, with it’s coffee shop open from 8:00am-3:00pm, which is mainly stocked with snacks like my personal savior, Goldfish <3 and obviously Peets coffee and tea.

They also plan to serve slurpees in many rotating flavors, though they haven’t started selling yet. Small Cafe best-sellers are the muffins, (chocolate chocolate, duh) and the hummus and pretzel combo packs for on-the-go munching. Other options available are overly priced yet strangely edible sushi, Naked Juice, bagels, cake pops, or Cliff Bars, which the larger cafeteria doesn’t serve.

Kids flock to the small cafe between periods for a quick fix, or stay seated in it’s retro, rounded couches for a free period.

Our basement scrounge holds another snack bar, open from 9:00am to 2:00pm.
Here they sell candy, ice cream, and a variety of even more fried things such as Bosco sticks. These two 7 inch breadsticks stuffed with cheese in a paper bag that oozes oil are the big craze with a majority of NT boys. I’d recommend the Smart Water as the best option down there.

And if none of this does it for ya, almost every kid I asked reminded me about the Lou Malnatis pizza ordered to the school every other Wednesday.