What to expect at Prospect House

Undergraduates pass through Prospect Gardens every day, but most pay little attention to the distinctive building resembling an Italian villa with a Romeo and Juliet balcony: Prospect House. Deciding between Wilcox and Wu, Rocky and Mathey and Forbes, students don't contemplate how professors dine in style in Prospect House's elegant interior.

Or so the story goes. What really transpires in that most enigmatic of places, the faculty dining facility?

On a random Thursday afternoon, professors streamed in with relaxed yet determined looks. No doubt, they were intent on the good meal to come – or, perhaps, on how to capture the attention of a roomful of the brightest of the younger generation.

"So I put on an overhead projector . . ." said one agitated professor, gesturing wildly as she walked by.

Downstairs, as soon as I saw the stack of trays, I knew I was in for a huge disappointment: today's lunch would be served cafeteria style. However, this shock was substantially counterbalanced by the delectable variety of viands displayed before me. There was a prix fixe entrée "for those who don't feel like being creative," I was told. But those who did could make a masterpiece out of the salad bar, with items including roasted salmon, egg salad, marinated eggplant and beet and cheese salad. And who can resist a pasta station titled "Pasta in Action?" Not to mention Ritazza's Really Good Coffee Company, which, it declared, "delivers a taste worth discovering."

The featured items were "Hot Dogs as America," in celebration of the exhibit "Baseball as America" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The museum offers a daily selection from a menu including the New York Street Cart Dog, the Chicago Red Hot and the Fenway Frank. The museum food court is managed by the Restaurant Association. According to the museum website, "A diversified food service company, Restaurant Associates owns and operates several high-profile restaurants in Manhattan." These include Brasserie, Brasserie 8, Cucina, Café Centro, Tropica, SeaGrill and the Rock Center Café. This same company operates right here in Prospect House.

Eclectic items included kiwis, spinach pies, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Snapples.

As we weighed our plates and checked out, I spotted a black-and-white poster from Opening Exercises, September 11, 1983 on the wall. There was also a comforting Sanitary Inspection Record boasting, "Satisfactory Plus."

Tray in hand, I was steered upstairs, through rooms with high ceilings and out to a table on the porch. It was one of the first days of real spring, and the sunlight streamed over us as if to further illuminate our highbrow conversation on the situation in Israel, modern agricultural technology and passport control. I sat up straight and tried my best to be graceful in delivering long strands of carrot to my mouth without any major mishaps. It was urbanely casual, the way lunchtime should be, a glimmering breath of rest in the middle of a hard day. What was going through my mind? — "Now, where should I eat lunch tomorrow — Rocky or Mathey?"