Track and field early return taught me 2 very important lessons. Lesson number 1) $10 a day is not nearly enough money to feed a distance runner, and number 2) Davis Square is actually AWESOME. I returned to campus on January 7th, a little over a week before regular students had to be back. For those eight days, we were given a teeny tiny amount of food money each day and told to fend for ourselves until the dining halls reopened. All of us freshman runners basically stuck together, sharing our favorite places to eat with each other while we struggled to stay on budget (we didn’t). Davis is surprisingly full of great places to eat, so here are some of my favorite places:
Taipei Tokyo:
Words cannot describe how much I love Taipei Tokyo (or how much money I spent there last semester). Taipei is your classic Asian food restaurant. I love the sushi, some of my friends love getting Chinese—basically Taipei Tokyo is our go to.
The Blue Shirt Café:
I didn’t know about this café until someone brought me there during early return. Its one part juice bar, one part sandwich shop and it has some pretty good smoothies, too. It isn’t the cheapest place in the world, but the sandwiches and smoothies are absolutely worth the cash. It’s a cute little health food shop (I hear they’re all over the west coast?) and I cannot wait to go back. It’s my new go-to for healthy, fast food, but unlike Taipei it doesn’t deliver (heartbreaking).
Another place introduced to me during early return. True Grounds is a coffee shop on Broadway, right off campus, so it isn’t exactly in the main section of Davis Square. It has sandwiches, wraps, breakfast options, and, of course, coffee drinks. True Grounds is a great place to bring work to on the weekend. Any purchase you make gets you one free hour of internet access. One of the best things about True Grounds is that it forces you to do the homework you bring, and not fuss around on the internet. Or you end up talking to the friend you came with all day. It’s a 50/50 shot.
I actually can’t make a list of favorite food shops without including at least one fro-yo place… So Iyo it is! It’s beautiful inside, has tons of options, and happens to be pretty cheap. You probably wouldn’t hit it up too much since Tufts had Sundae Sundays and Sundae Thursdays, but it’s always there for the odd Tuesday when you just really, really need some fro-yo.
Davis also offers all your usual suspects: McDonalds, Dunkin Doughnuts, Subway, Chipotle, Starbucks. There is also the very popular, very famous, and very, very good breakfast place called Soundbites (had it for the first time during early return!). So for anyone wondering about the options students have close to campus, let me assure you that they’re awesome.