True Burger in Pryz Food Court Now Also Serves Breakfast
Image Courtesy of The Catholic University of America
Anthony Curioso
This is an independently submitted op-ed for our Quill section. Views and statements made in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Tower.
Students at CUA who checked their Instagram feeds on October 15 may have seen an unexpected announcement from the Office of Dining Services. True Burger, one of the four stations in the Pryzbyla Center food court, is now offering breakfast items.
The Pryzbyla Center food court has been open exclusively on weekdays (except during University holidays and breaks) for several years. Food court staff members traditionally begin serving the long lines of customers at 11 a.m. each weekday and close each station separately throughout the mid-to-late afternoon and early evening. The new True Burger breakfast menu is also available on weekdays, from 8 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.
Keli Georges, a junior business operations management and sales major and the marketing intern for the Office of Dining Services, commented on her reaction to the announcement.
“When I saw the announcement, I was very excited about the possibility of another breakfast option for students,” Georges said.
The new breakfast menu at True Burger aims to provide ravenous, early-rising CUA students with another alternative if they do not want breakfast in Garvey Hall, CUA’s all-you-care-to-enjoy dining hall. This new breakfast option may be a great idea and could prove popular among students, but it comes with a catch. You cannot use a meal swipe to pay for the various new breakfast items; you must instead pay for them using your dining dollars or a debit or credit card.
The Instagram post from Dining Services announcing the new breakfast menu at True Burger is reminiscent of the short period six years ago when the world-renowned breakfast chain IHOP made it seem as though it had changed its name to IHOB in an attempt both to be “hip” and to sell more of its burgers.
However, what makes the Dining Services announcement different from the 2018 IHOP/IHOB marketing ploy is that True Burger is still, and will likely always remain, known as True Burger. Still, I expected the announcement of True Burger’s new breakfast menu and new hours to have significantly more fanfare and an announcement like this to come via an email to the University community instead of via an Instagram post that some students may not have a chance to see if they are not on social media.
True Burger’s new breakfast menu is highlighted by a “big breakfast combo” consisting of pancakes, fried or scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, and the option for hash browns made with or without cheese. You can also order breakfast sandwiches, a breakfast burrito, a biscuit, and overnight oats or order the individual components of the “big breakfast combo” in separate orders.
For my first experience trying the new breakfast items, I ordered the “big breakfast combo” in its entirety. I requested fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns with cheese to accompany the pancakes.
The pancakes were among the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, the bacon was inconsistently crispy, the eggs were fried to over-hard (meaning they did not have runny yolks, which I prefer my fried eggs to have), and most disappointingly, I received no hash browns.
Georges commented on her enjoyment of the new breakfast items and her opinion on what items might be most popular.
“I tried the pancakes, and they were really good,” Georges said. “I honestly think the pancakes will be the most popular option among the new True Burger breakfast items because we don’t have freshly made pancakes very often in Garvey Hall.”
Overall, I am grateful for another breakfast option when I don’t feel like going to Garvey. The “big breakfast combo” was definitely worth the $15 I paid for it, primarily because of the delicious pancakes. I wish some of the new True Burger breakfast offerings were “meal deal” options, but perhaps that will happen further down the line.
