Re-Fresh Market
1070 Arcadia LoopHow about something a little closer to home?
I know…when I travel I get outside of my geographic boundaries but…you know…I’ve said it before…I treat this blog like a journal. Plus, I usually get 100’s of more page views for blog posts when I travel…especially if it’s a big brand.
Anyway, I’m back in Kalamazoo…for a little while anyway, so I can sneak in one before I’m off to a skating competition or something somewhere.
I made a run to the WMU Student Bookstore on my lunch break last week. I wanted to look at hockey National Championship merchandise and since I had some free time, I figured why not.
I didn’t find what I was looking for but since I was in the building, I figured I’d just grab lunch.
I’ve blogged about a couple of the restaurants in the new student center before. There’s Mi Pi which is kind of like a Blaze Pizza and there’s Fuego Verde which is kind of like a Chipotle.
There’s a third option that I didn’t even realize was there. I was walking through the Student Center a few weeks but I came in what might be considered the “front door” off Arcadia Loop instead of coming in through the doors near Sangren Hall like I usually do.
Re-Fresh Market is just that. It’s a market. It’s located on the first floor of the Western Michigan University Student Center on Arcadia Loop near the center of campus. Like I just mentioned, you can access the student center either from the south off Arcadia Loop which brings you in on the bottom floor near Re-Fresh or you can come in from the north off Michigan Avenue which brings you on the second floor on the other side of the building. Whatever you choose, Re-Fresh is kind of separated from the rest of the food court with an actual entrance into an enclosed space so it’s more like a store than a food court offering.
Re-Fresh Market is…well, it’s a market. It has some quick meals and snacks. It’s kind of like a gas station convenience store. It’s a place to stop and grab something quickly if you’re in the building studying or doing something between classes.
If you’re in a hurry, there’s a cooler that has ready made sandwiches and salads.
And one that has some bakery items if you’re just looking for something sweet.
The deli is in the back of the store and it’s set up like most fast casual sandwich shops. There’s a long counter where the sandwich is made in front of you and a menu board hanging from the ceiling. The sandwiches all have an ingredient list but they’re pretty customizable with a small list of veggies and sauces to choose from.
I ordered The Bronco Stacker. On the menu, it’s roast beef, bacon, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, salt, pepper, and a Dijon Aioli. I got the full sandwich so with a couple of Pepsi’s from the cooler, the meal set me right around $17.
I modified the sandwich a bit and left off the tomato and onion and added banana peppers. They gave me the option to toast the sandwich and I took it. I was incredibly surprised at how much I liked this sandwich. It’s very simple with a simple list of ingredients but it really rivals a lot of the sandwich shops. Toasting the sandwich definitely made a difference giving it a bit of a crunch and heating the bacon up to so it was slightly greasy. I tore through the two halves of the sandwich utterly surprised that I liked it as much as I did.
After eating at Fuego Verde and Mi Pi, my expectations were low. I was expecting something decent, as those two places are, but definitely not something comparable to the major chains their emulating. I was back on WMU’s campus a couple of days later and I was really tempted to go back to Re-Fresh Market to grab something to eat. It’s probably the best of the options in the Student Center.
SW Michigan Dining 