Welcome Back, Tufts!

It’s that time of the year again. College students are about to return to the Hub in full force and though they can drive full-time Bostonians a little nuts, they make the city more energetic, so let’s welcome them, shall we? We’ll be offering a series of posts for various colleges over the next week, highlighting our top picks for delivery, study break spots, hangover food, and dining on a parent’s dime. Today’s entry is Tufts, where first-year orientation starts today.

Fun facts about Tufts: The university’s radio station is really excellent. A Tufts professor wrote the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. His name? Dr. Lou Lasagna. According to the school’s website, Tufts “may be home to the world’s largest collection of elephant statues.” All of these are, of course, reasons to like Tufts, but to our mind, Tufts’ greatest attraction is its location. Mere minutes from both Davis “The Paris of the ‘90s” Square and Ball “Breakfast” Square, Tufts is ideally positioned for good eating. Below, our picks for the best bests for the four college food groups.

Delivery: Laugh at the name if you must, but Pini’s Pizza (511 Broadway, Somerville, (617) 628-8668) is crazy good and crazy cheap. The vast majority of their business is delivery, so they do an excellent job at it: fast and yummy. This is by no means an artisanal place and we’d advise keeping things fairly plain (we’re partial to the garlic pie ourselves), but within those constraints, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better pie for this kind of money.

Study Break Snacks: Sometimes a trip as tiny as running to the vending machine for a Diet Coke can constitute a study break, but sometimes (especially when in the throes of deepest procrastination), you want a little bit more of a trip. When you need to get off campus for an hour, head on down to the Diesel Cafe for a cookie and a latte. Oh, and maybe a game of pool. Oh, and maybe a few pictures in the photo booth. What? That’s what extensions are for.

Hangover Food: O, hungover Tufts student! Drag your booze-soaked body out of bed and pad over to Kelly’s Diner (674 Broadway, Somerville, (617) 623-8102) for the works: orange juice (sans vodka, in marked contrast to last night), coffee, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and home fries. By the time you finish, your hangover will be a thing of the past.

On Your Parents’ Dime: You may have been subsisting on a diet of Easy Mac and Clif Bars for the past semester, but that won’t do for your parents, now will it? Show the people that raised you your newfound college sophistication with a meal at Gargoyles on the Square and catch up over an excellent yet unpretentious multi-course feast.

Tufts University [Official Site]
Diesel Cafe [Official Site]
Gargoyles on the Square [Official Site]

Welcome Back, Tufts!