Photo Illustration Courtesy of Senior Drew Vander Weele.

I pride myself on being a decisive person.

I like having control over my own life.

This is very similar to many Americans; we like to enact our freedom of choice. Restaurants like Chipotle, Blaze Pizza, and Subway or the “make your own meal” restaurants model seems to be the perfect experience for many decisive prideful Americans, yet all of these eateries have descended into chaos. San Luis Obispo High is full of hungry teenagers so Expressions has decided to provide these students with a fiery opinion piece in hopes that better informs their restaurant choices. 

  “Ok, we’re gonna keep this quick. Because exceptional quality at lightning fast speed is what we’re all about. Blaze Pizza,” said Head Chef Brad Kent of Blaze Pizza on the Blaze Pizza website.

  Blaze Pizza has been a favorite of many SLOHS and Cal Poly students ever since it opened, and it makes sense; a pizza place where you are the chef. Where Blaze strays from most pizza places where you can choose toppings, customers make the entire thing from crust to finishes. This seems like a dream until you realize making decisions about food is great when you have complete control. Customers are forced to order through those behind the counter over the loud hum of the pizza oven, and for those who dread awkward social interaction this can be a personal hell. When ordering you have to maintain a clear speaking voice so the person making your food can clearly understand your order. There is also the added plus of not receiving the exact amount desired of a certain topping which adds another layer of tension to the already nerve-racking experience. At this point, when you have willingly put yourself in an extremely frustrating and uncomfortable situation, you began to see the cracks in this restaurant system and how Head Chef Kent’s promise of exceptional quality is far from the truth. 

  As for the other restaurants using this model like Chipotle and Subway customers will most likely encounter the same situations and issues. Yet why do we still flock to these restaurants if we walk away unsatisfied. Chipotle has had countless health crises, while Subway has been accused of serving some items that far from what they say it is. In towns like San Luis Obispo, especially, small businesses restaurants tend to suffer or go unnoticed due to these larger chains. We make the conscious decision to support major companies who rarely bring any real change to the area. SLO is a town, like many others, that has been affected by the pandemic. It’s important, in a community preservation sense, to support our local restaurants instead of settling for the frustrating mediocrity at restaurants like Chipotle, Subway, and Blaze. Our lives are so busy that we don’t have time to guide another person on how to make our own meal. Ordering an item that has been created by a chef to have a pleasant balance is far more enticing than a pizza with far too much garlic and far too little cheese.