While breakfast may consist of simply grabbing a quick pastry and a coffee on the way to class for most of the Washington University community, the new Parkside Cafe on the East End is beginning to expand food options on campus to kick off students’ days.

Grace Bruton

The cafe now serves hot breakfast options in addition to their usual baked goods and grab-and-go offerings from 8-10 a.m. on Wednesdays. The menu includes a breakfast sandwich, blueberry pancakes, a quinoa and oat breakfast bowl with egg and kale and fried eggs that come with sweet potato hash with bacon and onions. Customers can also order the hash with bacon and onions as well as a serving of bacon as side dishes.

Parkside Operations Manager Hayes Green wrote in a statement to Student Life that Parkside is “testing this breakfast out” and “looking to gather information for potential future development.”

Although Parkside is often busy during lunch times, students can quickly and easily grab their breakfast before class. Since much of the food is already cooked when students order on touchscreen kiosks, dishes are served within a couple minutes.

Although this allows students to get their food in a timely manner, Sam Fox School freshman Ricardo Alvarado noted that he “would rather [his food] be hotter.” However, Alvarado complimented the quality of the food offerings.

“The food is a little bit more interesting than…the [Bear’s Den] breakfast food,” Alvarado said. “It’s pretty good. I like the choices that they have. They’re pretty unique.”

Other diners shared Alvarado’s praise, highlighting the lack of dining options on the East End, specifically in the morning.

“It’s really hard to find breakfast options around campus around engineering buildings,” senior Tommy Ahn said, also commenting that he hopes to see Parkside expand the breakfast menu to include more options.

In addition to adding more items to the menu, many students expressed that they would like to see the breakfast menu offered every day rather than solely on Wednesdays.

“I think it definitely offers good options for people to come and get breakfast, because there aren’t many eateries on this end,” freshman Ethan Lowndes said. “And with this, it helps a lot for people who have early classes down here. I definitely think that this is a good step and I think that it’s something that I hope they offer every day.”