With the recent news of Acropolis Pizza House closing after 40 years, Syracuse University students have had to digest the fact that one of their campus’ best spots to grab a late-night bite is in its waning days. After four decades of business, one would hope Acropolis’ replacement would want to capture the essence of what made it so cherished amongst the student body.

Instead, a Popeyes franchise is planning to take its place. Don’t get me wrong, I love Popeyes as much as the next guy, however, it is a shame that one of SU’s popular eateries is getting swapped out for a chain that has more than 2,500 national locations and no ties to the Syracuse area.

Acropolis’ failure to maintain business may have been due to uncontrollable reasons accompanying the pandemic. For one, it became much more difficult for restaurants near campus to attract their typical customer base, as college students were gone for extended periods of time. COVID-19 also caused increasing prices of food and maintaining employees, which hindered eateries’ business nationally. Regardless of what could have caused the pizza joint to call it quits, students deserve better than another chain restaurant.

But that’s exactly what they got. This disappointing reality emphasizes that no amount of longevity ensures financial security, especially post pandemic. Therefore, established brands like Popeyes are safer to place on Marshall Street. These larger franchises will garner business, but they subtract from campus culture, which should be a priority in a college town.

Marshall Street is continuing its transformation into becoming a food court full of common eateries, taking the distinctiveness away from the strip. When taking a walk down the plaza, it is becoming difficult to find a restaurant that is exclusive to the Syracuse area with a stable customer base. Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, Subway, Insomnia Cookies, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Pita Pit, Starbucks and now Popeyes are the building blocks of Marshall Street, making any sense of uniqueness diminish.

This culinary facelift of SU’s campus is causing students to lose unique places to dine. The most popular restaurants for students to visit are primarily off campus, such as Pastabilities, Original Grain, XO Taco and Rise N Shine Diner. In a town that revolves around its university such as Syracuse, SU students should be disheartened that they have so few eateries on campus grounds that aren’t a large chain.

Besides Varsity Pizza, no restaurant on Marshall Street feels like a relic of Syracuse. Even though there are establishments such as Royal Indian Grill, Taste of Asia and Winnie’s Soul Delicious, it seems as if they are seldom brought up in conversation. This is likely because, at the end of the day, familiarity makes for a more appealing option when it comes to the food industry. It’s an uphill battle for small businesses to compete with the Popeyes of the world. This is particularly the case with the aforementioned challenges of the pandemic.

With Marshall Street having been commodified with an influx of non-local restaurants, it now has very little that makes it feel like SU’s own, which, simply put, is saddening. Every college
campus has places and people that make it one of a kind, but SU has very few of these. Imploring SU students to resist a Popeyes biscuit is not what I’m trying to accomplish here. Rather, I just want to write from the perspective of a student, who, much like his peers, wants a Marshall Street full of local businesses we can rally around as a school and community.

Jonah Weintraub is a freshman broadcast, digital journalism major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jsweintr@syr.edu

Published on March 1, 2022 at 11:37 pm