Au Bon Pain

ABP may be a chain but they bake their bread in house and the ingredients are fresh! I had the angus steak sandwich. The bread was fresh, the steak was well cooked, the pepper jack was sharp, and the caramelized onions made for a nice post-​lunch coma. Really — what more can you ask for? This is a bright spot in the middle of dull and dark Suburban. Sure the prices are higher than the Taco Bell in the area, but you’re paying for the better service and quality.
Oh yea — sign up for the E-​club and you’ll get a free sandwich on your birthday — outright!

I am a big ABP fan. This location… not so much. I arrived during morning rush hour, so it was somewhat busy. I ordered a toasted bagel with honey pecan cream cheese– AMAZING. One of my favorite things of all time. Even if the woman taking orders was a tad unfriendly.
However, I then went looking for the iced tea. Their iced tea is one of my favorite things, and when I lived in another city, I’d drink a giant iced tea every day from ABP. I found this weird little table in the corner with two tanks on it, one labeled iced tea. I couldn’t tell if they were in use or not, and I felt it and it was warm. I asked one of the guys if they had iced tea, and he looked at me like I was an idiot and told me it was in there. I then had trouble finding the cups– they were behind the tanks where nobody would ever look. I got some iced tea, which was WARM– I then looked around and didn’t see any ice machines. I asked the same guy about ice– he looked at me like I was a double idiot– and pointed at this weird box on the table. I opened it up and there was this pile of water with a few iced cubes left in it, and the scooper (and the scooper handle) IN the water/​ice mixture. I was a little weirded out, but fished out some ice. I then couldn’t find any straws– they weren’t near the cups or near the coffee cups– but gave up, paid, and left. I had trouble getting enough iced cubes, so by the time I got to my office, all the ice had melted and my iced tea was warmish.
By the time I sat down at my desk, I started thinking about all the other people’s hands who had scooped the ice out of the box with the scooper, then put the scooper back into the water/​ice concoction. I then thought about the bathrooms at Suburban Station, and how disgusting they were, and how many people use that bathroom and don’t wash their hands… and how many of those people then got ice out of the bucket and put the scooper back in the water-​ice mix, for their disgusting bathroom germs to fester in. I drank some of the warm iced tea before this idea grossed me out so much that I had to throw it out. I’m pretty sure this is a health code violation, and now I’m just sitting here, waiting to start having unattractive repercussions due to E. Coli (and every other type of bacteria).
Next time, I’ll go to Dunkin Donuts.

Most mornings when I stumble off the train in Suburban Station, I am looking for some kind of sustenance to bring up to my office. Their coffee is not half bad, and even though their prices are not great, they do offer fresh fruit, which is hard to come across from the other vendors in this part of the station. Half price baked goods after 5pm is also a nice treat.

Their soup is good, but not $ 7 good. And seriously, throw me an oyster cracker or something! The made to order sandwiches have always been tasty, pre-​made ones, not so much. And the little snacks on the counter are a rip off-​like $ 3 for 7 almonds? No.

$ 5.00 for a cup of soup and no crackers or bread or anything?
really?