In a college town like Starkville, one might expect a variety of different eating establishments to coincide with the diverse population of Mississippi State students and match their zeal for new ideas.
But with the addition of two new sandwich shops, which brings Starkville’s total to 12, and a new neighborhood restaurant that is only mildly different from the other five, it seems that maybe Starkville and MSU students just want the same old things.
In Starkville, 12 sandwich shops offer the same product with varying degrees of quality and unique personality. Diners can choose from Quizno’s, Lenny’s, Spanky’s, Oby’s, Sweet Pepper’s, McAllister’s, Bulldog Deli, City Bagel and four Subways, in addition to 13 fast food restaurants. Does Starkville really need that many restaurants dedicated solely to sandwiches? One thing is for sure, the bread industry isn’t complaining.
But while the number of students may justify the need for this many restaurants, two problems remain: what to do about the lack of variety, and what to do when the students leave for summer and Christmas holidays?
Starkville city planner George Rummel said the trend in sandwich shops could hurt Starkville because people will soon tire of the same old things and want change.
“If you look in the average college town, kids have a lot of sense, and after a while, they’re not just going to have what somebody hands them all the time,” Rummel said. “They’re going to go looking for different things.”
Many students agree with the first problem and offer some suggestions to bring more variety to Starkville’s stale epicurean environment.
“There’s really no variety with the restaurants in Starkville,” said Jamie Walker, a sophomore marketing major. “There’s Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday’s, but they’re basically the same restaurant, and then there’s Bulldog Deli, McAllister’s and [Sweet] Pepper’s; it’s all just more of the same. I would really like to see an affordable sushi restaurant come to Starkville. I think that’s something a lot of people would enjoy.”
“One thing I think would really take off in Starkville is a Buffalo Wild Wing’s [restaurant],” said David Eldridge, a junior international business major. “There are no sports bars in Starkville, and we really need one. I think a lot of students would love that.”
“I can sort of see having a Sweet Pepper’s on the other end of town from the Bulldog Deli, but when you have a McAllister’s one street over from the Bulldog Deli, which is the exact same restaurant, that’s just overkill,” said Courtney Jones, an MSU admissions counselor from Bluefield, W.Va.
Some new restaurants have come to Starkville with the public’s need for change in mind. The Abbey delivers New York-style cuisine at New York-style prices; Bin 612 offers reasonably priced Italian food with a charming atmosphere, and Up Your Alley focuses solely on tamales and margaritas. All of these restaurants and a few others have one thing in common: they are specialty restaurants, a term that separates them from the sandwich shops.
Starkville Mayor Dan Camp explains his view on the deli situation and sees that maybe students have unintentionally brought the sandwich overflow on themselves.
“It’s interesting because Bulldog Deli was the original McAllister’s, and then [Sweet] Pepper’s is a take off of the Bulldog Deli,” Camp said. “So you’ve got three essential Bulldog Deli ideas that have been brought into Starkville. And if you’ve been to Chili’s, you’ve been to [Ruby] Tuesday’s and you’ve been to Applebee’s; it’s the same type of urban presentation. I feel there’s a trend in our society, and with the sandwich shops, maybe there’s a need for the student population to have them.”
Camp also wonders how the restaurants will fare once the students leave in May and how these new restaurants will stay afloat amidst falling funds.
“It will be interesting to see how Starkville supports these new [restaurants],” Camp said. “We’ll probably have a lot of people getting on their knees and praying once all the business from the college kids leaves in the summer. It’s really tough around December and May. But you got a lot of places that are always popular, like the Bulldog Deli. There are cars there all the time. People just get in a habit of going there.”
Different things are coming into Starkville and may find a place among students craving new and interesting foods.
“I think the new specialized restaurants have been bringing a breath of fresh air [to Starkville’s restaurant scene],” Camp said. “I had a young man who had a restaurant down on the Coast that was destroyed tell me his idea for a fried shrimp and catfish specialty shop that serves an array of draft beers.”
“I think when you have people suggesting those types of things, you get a difference in the situation we presently have,” he added.
Perhaps, in the future, the city will hear the hunger pangs of the students and citizens of Starkville and try to reshape the dining experiences for everyone fed up with cookie-cutter restaurants and sandwich shops.