Southside Cafe held a free late-night pancake event from 8:30–11 p.m. on April 23. Around 900 students showed up for the free fuel to power through Prep Week.

Alongside pancakes with all the trimmings—syrup, whipped cream and butter—sausages and sausage patties were offered for those in need of some sweet and salty. Dairy-free and gluten-free alternatives were also readily available. Paper soda cups were offered for free and attendees could choose from any of the regular soda flavors that Southside Cafe offers. Granola bars were also available.

Students who attended were handed blue tote bags with several freebies, including pens, pins, keychains and stickers. WSU mascot, Butch T. Cougar attended the event to chat with students and show some cheer.

Eddie Aguilar, Southside Cafe general manager, said the late-night pancake idea came from other universities holding similar events.

“My associate manager, Candida Carv, was looking through websites from other universities and she saw this,” Aguilar said. “She was doing this over the summer of 2024 and she suggested that we do this event in December. The university that I used to work at … now it’s called Cal Poly Humboldt, we did this event as well and it was a lot of fun, a lot of work. So, I was like ‘alright, it’s going to be a lot of work, but we’ll do it.'”

This is not the first time that Southside Cafe has held a late-night pancake event, he said.

“We did this event last December on the Wednesday night of prep week, which was the first time we did it. It’s something we’re thinking about doing as a traditional event every semester,” he said.

Both times, the event proved to be popular with students, with many turning up for some free snacks, Aguilar said.

“The first time around we did it, we had just under 1,000 participants come by. [This time] we had just under 900,” he said.

The event was not just a success with students. Staff working that night listened to music throughout their shift and served up dishes to students.

“Student staff were more than happy to stay until 11:30 p.m. that night, working on this event,” Aguilar said. “We got a lot of volunteers from housing and dining to help serve, as well as a couple of folks from student affairs. Most of those, it’s their second time around, and they’re just having a blast.”