MAP Cafe’s Unending West Select Waffles
It was January at Grove City College, and we had all just got back from a long break, most of us were less than thrilled to be thrown back into the thick of it. So, imagine our delight in Mary Anderson Pew’s (MAP) café to find pre-made waffle corners and rounds at our hands! The next day, same thing, waffles! But this time with a fun little twist; they were burger waffles. The day after, waffles again. Then again, and again. Every day this past spring semester MAP café has been serving various iterations of waffles at the West Select station, not for their own whimsy and fun but because we, the students, had brought this upon ourselves.
At first, I was sad, then that turned to being a bit upset. I was upset at the loss of my mac and cheese with pulled pork and at the loss of the different meats they would offer, giving us more choices from the normal taco meat options. For about 1.5 weeks my unsettledness lasted. But during those few weeks of turmoil, I passed through the stages of grief finally to acceptance. It was acceptance with some anticipation and a sprinkle of joy as I now viewed MAP waffles as a challenge to try them all.
In my journey I believe I tried around 94% of the options they presented us with. To start positively with the best combination of waffle/toppings I ate was the bacon waffle with Parmesan and fried chicken.* This was towards the middle of the semester, and you could tell since it seemed quite well thought out. Instead of doing normal waffle batter, they put bacon pieces in the batter which was a brilliant move. This was a good move since the beginning of the waffle extravaganza had some salty combinations with their normal sweet waffle batter, and those did not pair well. I never expected to eat Parmesan cheese on a waffle but the blend of all the toppings on a fluffy waffle was very pleasant. An honorable mention goes to the waffle topped with bacon, jalapeno, and fried chicken. Though the waffle batter was normal, I really enjoyed the various textures of the jalapeno, fried chicken, and bacon crumbles. It was also such a surprisingly wonderful mix to put syrup and jalapeno together!
Unfortunately, not all the options were as delicious. A disagreeable waffle to me personally was their Caesar salad dressing waffle. I was a little confused, but the sign did say what they wanted us to do and like a good MAP-goer I listened and put the Caesar salad dressing on top of my perfectly good plain waffle. It was not wonderful; it tasted likely how you would expect a waffle with salad dressing to taste. Another mention of not-so-greatness was the coleslaw and pulled pork topped waffle. I truly expected this to be a bit better than it was, so much so that I tried it at lunch, and then again at dinner. Both times were not awful but not really delightful either. Neither topping was offensive on their own, but when you put them together and then on top a waffle, the textures did not become friends. Instead of joining hands to sing a harmony to your taste buds, they fought and made your taste buds revolt against the cruel government of your brain that had made the choice to allow them to suffer (and in my case, suffer twice).
These past few months I have likely eaten more waffles than I have eaten in the entire total of my life before spring semester 2026. Most of them were even quite good, despite my previous negative outlook. This has been an adventure, and I do look back on it fondly even if at times I missed the mac and cheese. But despite some of the distress I went through, I know it is a blessing and am grateful to have a dining hall that does pay heed to our sometimes quite silly requests and votes.
*all waffle combinations included syrup.
