Leading up to Spoon’s monthly Late Night at the Diner event November 8, University of Maryland students had the opportunity to vote on two special dishes that they wanted to see featured at North Campus Diner.
This month’s two winning dishes were (drum roll) gourmet grilled cheese bar and loaded tater tots.
Photo by Emma Weiss
For the grilled cheese, students could choose between Texas toast or sourdough slices, four cheeses (American, Cheddar, Swiss, Brie, or cream cheese), and an array of extra add-ins such as cinnamon apples, french onions, guacamole, macaroni and cheese and jalapeños to create a one of a kind sandwich.
Students also had the option of choosing between preselected gourmet sandwiches like Ultimate French Onion Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, Nutella Banana, Brie and Apple and Bacon and Guacamole.
Photo by Hannah Kim
In addition, the loaded tater tots option gave students the choice between adding sour cream, bacon and green onions to the warm, crispy potato bites we all know and love.
Photo by Emma Weiss
At the stroke of 8:00, floods of students took a break from their last minute study sessions and filed into The Diner in pursuit of late night munchies to fuel their grumbling bellies and re-energize their fried brains.
Compared to last month’s event, November’s Late Night at the Diner attracted a significantly larger crowd of hungry students. The grilled cheese bar in particular proved to be a crowd favorite with its line stretching at least double the length of last month’s.
Photo by Emma Weiss
“I like that there’s a lot of options, and that it’s different from the norm,” said undecided freshmen Lexi Brown. “And anything with cheese is good.”
For some, the options for the grilled cheese bar proved to be too vast to make a definitive decision.
“I think that I’m going to either get the Nutella Banana or the Mac N’ Cheese. Or maybe both even though I don’t want to tell you that,” laughed freshmen computer science major Chelsea Buchiane .
Photo courtesy of Emma Weiss
Unfortunately, not all students were impressed with the grilled cheese. Luckily, the loaded tater tots catered to these students’ tastes as well.
“I liked my selection. I got bacon and provolone on sourdough,” said undecided freshman Khalil Roberts. “I would have liked to see more options for what you could put into the grilled cheese. I liked the tater tots better.”
“I got the bacon and provolone grilled cheese with white bread. It was pretty bland. I only got the provolone because they didn’t have American cheese,” reflected freshman government and politics major Hanna Hagege, “There were really good tater tots, though. I would love for the events to continue, and I would probably want savory options for next month.”
Voting for next month’s dishes are already underway in hopes of making next month’s Late Night at the Diner the best yet.