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Random Fri Jan 11 2008
Catered Lunches: A Love-Hate Thing
Sometimes when I open my Outlook calendar, I see the adult equivalent of a grade school cafeteria lunch menu. Depending on the meeting du jour, I can do a fair job predicting the day’s mid-day meal.
While my options tend to fare better than, say, corn dog with peas and Jell-O, or pizza bagel with curly fries and, um, Jell-O, certain boxed lunches are definitely “regulars” in the rotation. I’ve eaten Corner Bakery’s Harvest Salad (you know, the one with the pleasant but predictable combination of apples, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and bleu cheese) so many times that I’ve taught myself how to duplicate their signature, somewhat goopy, but oddly addictive balsamic vinaigrette at home.
What interests me is whether places like Corner Bakery, Sopraffina, and California Pizza Kitchen monopolize the lunch meeting market in the Loop -- or just in my office. What boxed lunch have you been served every Wednesday for four years? Or do you work for a company that thinks outside the box at lunchtime? Is there a dish you’d gladly never eat again because you associate it with a particularly difficult project, team or client? Or do you look forward to Cosi Thursdays with the same zeal as my eight-year-old self anxiously awaited the monthly appearance of Thanksgiving Dinner lunch (featuring the world’s most amazing pumpkin bread) on the St. Thomas More Hot Lunch Menu?
Phillip Lowe / January 26, 2009 11:55 AM
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