A new Mexican-style restaurant named Jorge’s will soon open in the previous location of La Patisserie in the Johnson Center.
The opening of this new restaurant is set for Monday, Feb. 16 at 11 a.m., according to Mark Kraner, the executive director of Campus Retail Operations. According to Kraner, Jorge’s was designed as a build-you-own-burrito concept but will also offer tacos and salads. For the burritos, the menu will feature a choice of protein, beans and other toppings, and the salsas will be made from scratch on campus.
Some students, including sophomore John Longbottom, are excited that another Mexican style restaurant is coming to Mason.
“I think a Mexican restaurant could be a good thing as long as it’s more angled towards the healthier side of that spectrum as opposed to what Taco Bell is,” sophomore John Longbottom said.
According to Kraner, the idea for Jorge’s came up when La Pat was closed. It was removed because its menu was too similar with the newly opened Panera.
While some students like freshman Benjamin Arrighi said they were not upset to see La Patisserie go, others like Fareeha Rehman and Longbottom said they were sad that La Pat was removed.
“La Pat is something you can’t find anywhere else and I really liked their Mediterranean sandwich, but it makes sense to take it out since Panera is too similar,” Rehman said.
“Sure, Panera does have better quality food, but Panera is significantly more expensive. La Pat tasted good and was cheaper. Instead of getting a Panera, the school would have been better off with better quality ingredients that made food across campus taste better,” Longbottom said.
Longbottom, who said he just prefers any option that is healthiest, also said he would have liked to seen Hot Spot come back because it was healthy and offered a variety of options like pasta and burrito bowls. He also said that it was nice to see it being made in front of him so he knew they were making it right. Others like Rehman and Kristin Price said they would rather have seen a Chipotle go in, but feel that Jorge’s will be similar enough that they are happy about the new restaurant.
As for food venues on the west side of the Johnson Center, Kraner said that the design work and renovation will begin in summer 2016.
Photo credit: GMU Student Centers
