By Sara Tucker & Rebecca Sirull, News Staff
From bars and restaurants to speakers and musicians, Northeastern has hundreds of activities to partake in and myriad places to frequent. In an annual poll hosted by The News, students voted for their favorites of what NU has to offer, and the results are in.
Best Restaurant
Symphony Sushi is a cozy eatery situated on Gainsborough Street. Coupling a laid back atmosphere with an upscale environment, “SymphSush” serves a variety of foods and alcoholic beverages.
Some of the popular food choices include spider maki with tempura shrimp, salads with grilled chicken, crab rangoons and Mexican rolls with avocado and Tabasco sauce. In terms of drinks, the restaurant serves beer, wine and sake.
Northeastern students are known to frequent the venue, which garnered 33 percent of this year’s Best of NU votes, with Boston Burger Company and Ginger Exchange coming in second and third. respectively.
“I really like their tempura rolls because they put them on the plate in the shape of a caterpillar,” middler political science and journalism double major Kelsey Bruun said. “I like the spider roll and the caterpillar roll and I’m a big fan of the salads … the dressing is really awesome.”
This dressing, usually a zesty mix of orange and ginger, freshens up taste buds and is customary at most Japanese restaurants.
Symphony Sushi is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. The eatery won a Best of Boston award in 2010, and while on the rise among Boston foodies, is not secret among Northeastern students.
Best Campus Eatery
With buffalo and teriyaki burritos, Nutella milkshakes and frequent deals for students, Boloco captured this year’s Best Campus Eatery award. The restaurant, with its all too ideal location on the first floor of the Marino Center, often has long lines (especially on dollar burrito nights), and has seating room for many, as well as a patio for sunny days.
Garnering 27 percent of the votes, Boloco was in close competition with Qdoba and Chicken Lou’s, which pulled in 20 percent and 17 percent of the votes, respectively. Boloco’s menu includes seven flavors of burrito bowls and burritos, which are available in three different sizes. There are also salads and wraps, smoothies and shakes and a dessert menu.
Daniel Chen, a sophomore architecture major, said that he frequents Boloco often when there are discount nights.
“It’s closer than Chipotle and better than Qdoba,” he said. “And they have a great variety of signature burritos that cater to anyone’s taste or craving.”
Best Campus Bar
Walk down Huntington Avenue on any given weekend night, or weeknight for that matter, and you are guaranteed to see a long line of hopeful patrons outside Conor Larkin’s Grill & Tap. This Northeastern favorite is known for its shotskis (shot glasses lined up on a ski that are taken all together by a group of four), $3 house ale on tap and Dog Bowls (literally a bowl full of alcohol), which are all enjoyed in a classic college dive bar setting.
Conor’s won the title by a wide margin, garnering 52 percent of the votes, with Our House East and Punter’s Pub receiving a fairly equal percentage at 23 percent and 20 percent, respectively. The remaining five percent of voters chose to seek out other locales for their favorite drinks.
In addition to the extensive drink menu, Conor’s offers a large selection of dinner and appetizer options. Some favorites include buffalo chicken nachos, fried pickles, mac ‘n cheese bites and steak tips. Students can also enjoy burger sliders, honey hot wings, buffalo bites and more for about $5 during the daily 3 – 6 p.m. happy hour.
Students expressed their love for the community feeling at Conor’s and the easily accessible location, making it the perfect meeting spot for friends and classmates.
“I like that I know everyone here so it’s more of a catch-up and see people that I don’t get to see during the week or during the day,” junior physical therapy major Brittany Reilly said.
Best Dining Hall
Anyone who has tried to get a sandwich, pizza or chicken tenders at Rebecca’s Café after 11:35 a.m. or 1:35 p.m. classes knows about Northeastern’s love for Rebecca’s. The sandwich bar offers grilled sandwiches and wraps like the turkey and apple, Tuscan turkey and buffalo chicken, which can be served cold or grilled.
Rebecca’s pulled in 56 percent of the total votes, with Levine Marketplace (Stetson East) coming in second with only 15 percent.
“I love Rebecca’s,” sophomore civil engineering major Michael Samaha said. “Their chicken fingers are off the chain.”
Located centrally on campus in the basement of Churchill Hall, students can be seen streaming from one of Rebecca’s two entrances with the signature brown paper bags in hand.
Best Campus Show
Snoop Dogg, Sara Bareilles and Cold War Kids dominated the stage at Matthews Arena a few weeks ago for this year’s Springfest concert. The arena was packed, and boasted several hundred students who fought through the struggle that is the NU ticket center in order to grab a $14 ticket to the show.
Cold War Kids opened up the show with a few of their most popular hits, like “Miracle Mile” and “Hang Me Up to Dry” before Sara Bareilles came on stage to the delight of many fans, singing classics like “Love Song” and new hits like “Brave.” Snoop Dogg finally mounted the stage later, singing his most popular songs, like “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Young, Wild & Free.”
Students agreed that the show was a hit, but that Sara Bareilles was the unexpected star of the show, outshining Snoop Dogg, who arrived late and sang hits from artists like Akon and Wiz Khalifa.
Sasha Gregory, a middler film studies major, wasn’t impressed by Snoop Dogg’s performance.
“I thought Sara was the best performer,” she said.
Despite the unexpected aspects of the show, Springfest won 69 percent of the votes in this year’s Best of NU poll.
Best Celebrity Appearance
A show with little structure but lots of laughs, Donald Glover’s Q&A with Northeastern students was highly sexual and, at times, personal. Glover commented on his previous Instagram posts, which were somber and described some of his life fears, and talked about the inspirations behind his albums. Ending the show with a freestyle rap alongside opener Reggie Watts, the night was a mix of jokes, brutal honesty and musical improvisation.
Glover is something of a jack-of-all-trades, performing as a rapper under his stage name Childish Gambino, an actor in the sitcom “Community,” and a stand-up comedian, in addition to his previous role as a writer for “30 Rock.” His visit to campus was met with great enthusiasm and students were eager to interact with Glover during his question and answer session, even resulting in one student joining him in singing a duet.
“It was unexpectedly raunchy for a university event and highly amusing,” sophomore political science major Zoe Rudman said. “There was a question and answer session with the audience and people asked some funny questions but he was very willing to respond and reciprocate.”
Best Crime Log Entry
“A man, not affiliated with the university, approached an officer and claimed that he worked for the US Government agency called ‘Black Ops,’ and was assigned to count every toilet on campus. As the officer began to question the man, he assaulted the officer. The man was placed into custody for assaulting an officer and disorderly conduct.”
No chronicle of the Best of NU would be complete without a mention from the Huntington News Crime Log, one of the most beloved and well-read sections of the paper. If nothing else, the Crime Log always provides a good laugh, courtesy of a city full of drunken college students and assorted members of the general public, all with the potential for questionable decisions and peculiar antics.
While some students make it their goal to end up in the Crime Log themselves, others simply enjoy reading about their classmates or searching for records of their friends’ weekends past. Stolen belongings and public intoxications are among the most common crimes on campus, but every now and then something truly bizarre comes along.
This particular gentleman seems to have become especially concerned with Northeastern’s plumbing system, even going so far as to design an alias as a member of the fictional “Black Ops” government agency, perhaps borrowing from the popular video game Call of Duty. However, in his valiant quest to count all the toilets on campus, the man let his passion for this goal get the better of him, responding to questioning by the police with a physical attack. While the situation was probably none too amusing for the man in question, it certainly provided some quality entertainment for the Northeastern community.
Photo by Louise Dechelle.
