Get in the Cal-Zone

It’s 9:00 p.m. on a Thursday night—past check-in for most of us. D-hall is closed, but you’re starving. We’ve all been there. For some, the solution is to grab a snack from your room, or to simply stick it out. But for most, the answer might lie in a delicious bundle of order-in food. Whether you like pizza or subs, calzones or fried rice, almost every Exonian has ordered at one point or another. But once you’ve chosen a dish to order, a problem arises. Where to order from? With so many choices, how could one possibly make a decision? We set out to fix that problem. We compared three different calzones from three different restaurants, all to help you take that crucial step and fill your tummy.We started out with the three staples of Exeter delivery: Romeo’s, Front Row and Supreme’s. We decided to go with a fundamental piece of Exonian culture: The Buffalo Chicken Calzone. We called in our orders, and sat down to wait. Coming in first was Supreme’s, with an astounding delivery time of only five minutes. We’re a little skeptical of this, and it’s possible we got an old calzone. But still, five minutes. This was pretty irregular, though. We found that the average delivery time was about half an hour.Next up was Front Row, with a delivery time of seventeen minutes. Pretty respectable, we thought. Coming in at dead last was Romeo’s, with a time of twenty six minutes. However, their calzone is a full two dollars cheaper, which is important to every money-conscious Exonian. Just for reference, a small at Romeo’s runs you about $7.50, whereas smalls at Front Row and Supreme’s go for $9.95.After all three orders arrived, we dug in. We ate in order of ar- rival, so we started off with Supreme’s. As anyone who has eaten a Supreme’s calzone knows, the presence of cheese is very important. So while the buffalo chicken is delicious, it’s the cheese on top, and the bleu cheese sauce that makes the meal. In this area, Romeo’s was severely lacking. There was maybe an ounce of cheese on the entire calzone. However, Front Row and Supreme’s had no such problem. Front Row’s calzone, however, is almost uncomfortable to eat just because of the sheer volume of chicken packed into the bread. We found ourselves constantly scooping up fallen bits of chicken from our plates. Supreme’s does a good job with this by cooking their calzones with single chicken fingers, rather than minced chicken pieces. Romeo’s, however, made up for their lack of cheese with pos- sibly one of the greatest calzone crusts that the three of us have ever tasted. It was beautiful. Will almost cried. “This bread is beautiful,” we distinctly recall him saying.While all three restaurants performed admirably, we all know that there can be only one best calzone. With the combination of the quick delivery time and expert balance of cheese and chicken, we decided that Supreme’s was the winner. So next time you order a “calzy," order from Supreme’s. As if you haven't already.Stay hungry my friends.The most interesting men in the Exeter bubble, Will, Mason and Nolan