The end of the semester is drawing near, kind of. You’ve bought all your schoolbooks, you don’t want any more Harvard sweatshirts and your laundry can wait. You still have a little Crimson Cash left in your account, though, and you’re not sure what to do with it. Why not let Mom and Dad treat you to a much-deserved Saturday night out?
That’s become much easier since Crimson Cash announced its “Off-Campus Merchants Program” in August 2003. Students can now use Crimson Cash at Uno’s, Bertucci’s, Noch’s, Crazy Dough and C’est Bon. We decided to begin our night with an Italian feast at Bertucci’s. Everybody else had apparently had the same idea—the line stretched out the door and into the hideous freezing cold. I squeezed through the crowd only to discover that there was a 40 minute wait. “You’re supposed to call ahead on weekends,” a girl in the line tells me bossily. With our hearts and minds set on Bertucci’s famous rolls, my friends and I huddle in the doorway until we’re finally, finally seated. By that time we’re practically delirious with hunger. We order the Antipasto Classico, which the menu calls the “house favorite,” but in reality turns out to be kind of scary and oily. But as most anyone who has ever ventured out to eat in Harvard Square and has landed at the door of old reliable Bertucci’s knows, the pasta dishes are good, though, with generous portions. I’m worried that our waitress will be annoyed when we tell her that we want to pay with Crimson Cash and we want to divide the check between separate Harvard ID cards, but she takes it in stride. Moreover, it’s easy—we just fill out a slip with the amount that each of us is paying, the waitress scans our cards and brings us a receipt that includes our remaining balance and we’re on our way. Maybe this really is “the safest, fastest, easiest way to buy the things you need”!
Well, maybe not. We move to Uno’s with the hopes of having drinks and dessert and then more drinks at the bar downstairs. The restaurant has lots of fun cocktails like Absolut Appletinis and Grape Crushes. While we’re trying to decide what to order, I think to ask the waiter, “Can we use Crimson Cash at the bar downstairs?”
“Sure!” he says cheerfully. “Except for alcoholic drinks.”
We had forgotten that you can’t use Crimson Cash to buy alcohol anywhere. Suddenly, our plans are falling apart. The desserts at Uno’s are above-average, especially the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup. But it’s hard to enjoy them when we know that, if we stick to the all-Crimson-Cash plan, this will be an alcohol-free night. We decide that in order to be able to thoroughly enjoy pizza from Noch’s later, we’ll have to be drunk, even if it involves a little cheating. We use Crimson Cash to buy mixers and snacks at C’est Bon and return to our room to whip up a few cocktails. When we run out of mixers, we restock from the vending machines. By the time these are gone, we’re more than in the mood for a few slices from Noch’s.
The night ends with us feeling bloated and our Crimson Cash accounts substantially slimmer. The bottom line? Crimson Cash is great for pizza and the like, but for a really good night out you’ll still need some green and your trusty, verifiable state-issued ID.
