- It’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday, and a new regular crowd of late-night diners shuffles into the Cannon Center.
BYU’s The Commons at the Cannon Center Dining now offers an alternative meal for students with late-night appetites. The “Brain Break” fourth meal serves power foods from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The meal, costing $6.50, is intended to allow more flexibility to student signature dining plans as well as busy schedules.
The Commons, which opened in 2008, is an integral part of BYU’s $41 million campus dining program which serves nearly 30,000 meals a day. Cannon Center Head Chef, Joe Castellano, said that The Commons instated its new hours, which started just over three weeks ago, to accommodate the hectic lives of students.
“The ‘Brain Break’ is designed to help the students who might be working, or studying late, or are participating in some other kind of activity,” Castellano said. “In our late hours we serve power snack foods. We have a salad bar, crepes, waffles, popcorn, sweets and you can even build your own protein burger, quarter-pounder, or turkey burger.”
The foods offered are not intended to substitute the dinner meal but rather to offer an alternative to the late-night cravings students have, and to even help those who can’t make it back to the dorms before 7:30 p.m.
Tyler Molinaro, a freshman from Atlanta, Ga., frequents The Commons during the late night hours once or twice weekly.
“I can remember at the beginning of the semester I couldn’t get in when I wanted to late at night,” Molinaro said. “I would stay up late on campus doing homework and when I came into the Cannon, it was closed. So this has helped out a lot. It just gives you more options.”
For other students, including those who want to avoid dark sidewalks and late-night walks to fast food restaurants, the “Brain Break” provides an alternative to the vending machines in the dorms.
Freshman Michelle Duskin, from Vancouver, studying music, dance and theater, enjoys the social aspect and that she doesn’t have to grab a hot pocket during late-night study sessions.
“I’ve been a few times. I always ate dinner before too, but it is just so much better than going to the vending machine, and it is really nice for me because I do not have a car so I can go there,” Duskin said.
The new hours are still on a trial basis; however, traffic in and out during the late hours in the past few weeks suggests that the “Brain Break” will continue throughout the year and possibly become a staple meal in freshman dining.
