{"id":863,"date":"2018-12-17T18:36:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T18:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=863"},"modified":"2019-01-17T19:01:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T19:01:05","slug":"the-lounge-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/the-lounge-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LOUNGE FLIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most agonising aspects of being at Lancaster used to be the dispiriting decision about which truly awful food outlet to take external visitors to, and how long exactly to spend apologising to said visitors for the lack of a suitable eating venue on campus. (Lancaster House Hotel was to a certain extent an the exception to this conundrum, but was a little far for lunch for those based in North Campus, and a little heavy on the old departmental budgets).<\/span><\/p>\n

This all changed when The Lounge ‘came on stream’, as management types like to say these days. While connoisseurs of Lancaster’s night-time economy may have at first wondered whether the venerable but long-defunct nightclub of the same name in the city centre was opening a branch on campus, it turned to be something of a surprise: a halfway decent restaurant, with a menu that changed once in a while, table service, and above all, an ambience that did not involve dart-boards or formica tables.<\/span><\/p>\n

After some initial wobbles around service from staff more used to doling out mashed potatoes in a cafeteria, The Lounge quickly came into its own, offering a choice of hot, substantial lunches alongside quicker options such as soup or sandwiches, and a variety of salads for the health-conscious. There was always at least one, and usually two or three vegetarian dishes for each course. More recently they have started offering vegan and gluten-free dishes as well. Despite occasional mislabellings on the menu (salmon is rarely considered vegetarian these days), the dishes generally not only sound good on the page but also look good on the plate, for example the rather seasonal ‘Parsnip gnocchi with roasted beetroot, saut\u00e9ed winter greens, and sun-dried tomato sauce’ or a ‘Deli open sandwich with mushroom and stem broccoli and kale pesto’.<\/span><\/p>\n

Food is only served 12-2, and this slot can get rather busy, particularly around Christmas and exam board time. Nevertheless, with a quick heads up to the staff, it is usually possible to get in and out within an hour, and to leave full and contented, and most importantly, not embarrassed in front of visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most agonising aspects of being at Lancaster used to be the dispiriting decision about which truly awful food outlet to take external visitors to, and how long exactly to spend apologising to said visitors for the lack … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[411,440,444],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-food-and-drink","tag-issue-184","tag-the-lounge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-dV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1096,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/apart-oh-no\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":0},"title":"APART-OH-NO","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything was supposed to be sorted. UK students accepted to Lancaster through Clearing had not been allocated on-campus accommodation this year, but they needn't worry - plenty of 'Lancaster University Approved Off-Campus Accommodation for First Year Students' would be available, all of it 'Lancaster University Homes APPROVED'. The glossy leaflet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":221,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/miscellany\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":1},"title":"MISCELLANY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"OVERHEARD AT LANCASTER In the Management School Hub. A young man obviously very thrilled to have been offered a job at Lancaster University. \u2018I am so pleased, fantastic, and they told me I don\u2019t have to wear a suit every day to work but under no circumstances must I ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":933,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/03\/01\/lancaster-goes-to-leipzig\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":2},"title":"LANCASTER GOES TO LEIPZIG","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A campus in Leipzig, then! What's going on there? Let's start with the official announcement: https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/news\/lancaster-announces-new-campus-in-leipzig-germany-1 The person sat next to the Vice-Chancellor, signing the agreement on behalf of private education provider Navitas, is Paul Lovegrove, former director of Study Group International (SGI). 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It was never clear whether Mr Regev was actually coming to campus, or whether he had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1240,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/the-unofficial-court-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":4},"title":"THE (UNOFFICIAL) COURT REPORT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 27 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Twenty seven people, including students, staff, former staff and city councillors, gathered in the impressive surroundings of the Council Chamber at Lancaster Town Hall on Thursday 12 March for the unofficial 2020 session of the Lancaster University Court. Jack O'Dwyer-Henry, city councillor for the University & Scotforth Rural ward, took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":961,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/report-the-lancaster-exchange\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":5},"title":"REPORT – THE LANCASTER EXCHANGE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 2 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"'You're here to witness an experiment!' announced Pro-Chancellor Lord Liddle, as Lancaster's first annual public meeting, The Lancaster Exchange, got underway in LICA at 10:30am on Saturday 30 March 2019. Would the new event justify the controversial decision to abolish its predecessor, the University Court (see subtext 172)? subtext went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}