— Story and Video By Kitrick McCoy '19
It’s Thursday morning and the sun hasn’t entirely risen over campus, but Vanessa Lam-Tran '19 knows what lunch will be — a “torta.”
Students in the World Kitchen line will ask to pile on the bacon, grilled chicken, steak and fresh vegetables onto a warm ciabatta-like bun, and drizzle it with what affectionately is known as “green sauce,” a pesto and jalapeno twist that adds the sandwich's zap.
Over 400 students file through Fusion restaurant’s large glass doors every Thursday in search of the Mexican-inspired sandwich, according to Rebecca Stewart ’02, marketing manager at Campus Auxiliary Services. CAS incorporates diverse flavors into menu options.
“It is a really cool combination of flavors that you can’t get anywhere else on campus,” says Katie Wedin '19. “I’ll wait in this line 30 minutes. I don’t care.”
Often, she does wait that long.
The Fusion prep team will end up slicing up hundreds of tomatoes, avocados and onions throughout the day. Behind the sandwich counter, three-year employee Ben Juchniewicz '18 is working his favorite shift; he is a self proclaimed “torta expert.”
Ben can layer all of the fresh veggies onto the sandwich in less than 15 seconds. As he slathers the green sauce and regular mayo simultaneously, and wraps the torta for handoff to the student, he looks up and sees 15 more faces patiently awaiting their turn.
“We try our very hardest to serve everyone quickly, but we still have a line,” he says.
“We love the torta, it is one of Geneseo’s best food options, and we come every Thursday even with the line,” say Lam-Tran and Emma Schneider '19.
Stop by Fusion on Thursdays or try for yourself, a true Geneseo Torta! Or Mondays. It’s so popular, CAS has expanded the torta offering.