I think one of the year’s biggest trends has been the growth of restaurants which resemble, and feel like nice parts of a university foodservice.  they always have a simple clear concept and good graphics.   The places are overdesigned compared to their  competition,   They are accessibly-priced to encourage frequent patronage and feature mainstream foods like pizza or Mexican with options like vegetarian, vegan or Kosher.   A little tweaking, a bit of demographic slice and dice.   Somerville’s new Flatbread pizzeria certainly has the  vibe of everyone’s  first restaurant, the place where a cohort of recent graduates could proceed beyond hamburgers and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.  Most of these places take meal plan dollars.  Good graphics, good lighting, and standards of apparent cleanliness that are well above what you usually find at a Mom & Pop restaurant.  There are better pizza places in Somerville but none with a clearer, more coherent concept.  Restaurants and Institutions magazine  has much more influence than Gourmet or Meatpaper.  The places embody a dialogue between broad currents in mainstream America, PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) versus NPR (National Public Radio).