College life anywhere in America necessitates finding friends and support structures: homes away from home. But in New York City, a profoundly isolating metropolis, and at Columbia, with an undergraduate community lacking the tradition and structural communities of its peer institutions—the residential college system at Yale or eating clubs at Princeton—building homes away from home requires initiative. That's where food communities come in.

While the city has played host to legendary food neighborhoods in the past, the trend seems to be ending as individual eateries hold the weight of entire neighborhood histories.

Culinary enthusiasts go head to head on the imperial Americanization of food.

With so many campus-area eateries being temporarily closed due to Health Code Violations, it's only appropriate to turn a scrutinizing eye closer to home.