It's midnight and you're cramming for your hardest exam at a table in Redifer Commons.

You know you have hours of more studying to get through and will probably be there until dawn.

All of a sudden, you hear music pumping and see students waiting in line for what looks to be like a night club and then the smell hits you: an aroma of mozzarella sticks.

Penn State's Food Services has added a new mix to the Southside Buffet in Redifer Commons this semester, featuring a "Late Night" buffet open from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. Steve Mariner, an employee at Late Night at Southside Buffet, said this new food option is getting great feedback from students.

"On average, we have at least 350 to 400 people coming in each night, so we know students like what we're serving," he said. "Sometimes, we even have to open up the back room because it gets so crowded in here."

Michelle Glenny, assistant manager of Late Night at Southside Buffet, said the time frame when the buffet is open is a common eating time for college students.

"I ran a Denny's for umpteen years, so the most common time for eating for this age group is 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.," she said. "Its fun when we get the bar crowd in here after midnight."

This is the first semester that Late Night at Southside Buffet is being offered in Redifer, and because of its popularity, Food Services may keep it open to later hours of the night or even spread it to eateries on other parts of campus in the future.

"No one really thought this idea would go, but the kids are really supportive and seem to like what we're doing because we are getting great feedback," Glenny said. "We have comment cards and surveys so it's really up to the students to say what they want because we're here to give them just that."

The late-night buffet features a deli section, nacho bar, curly fries, mozzarella sticks and breakfast foods such as scrambled eggs, bagels and cereal.

"This is pretty extravagant for late night; we have quite a few selections," Glenny said. "Aside from the regular food featured each night, we also offer different items on different nights during the week to see what students really like and what we can work with in our menu accordingly in the future."

Glenny said, depending on the night, such things like veggie pizza, sloppy Joes, breakfast sandwiches, Chinese food and macaroni and cheese can be found in the buffet lineup. "It's a bonus for our regulars," she said. "But we make sure nothing coincides with specials on the daily dinner menus."

As for health concerns dealing with obesity, Glenny said Food Services always offers healthier alternatives along with the not-so-healthy options.

"We really try to balance healthy and non-healthy options and we make sure they're available," she said. "I don't know what it is though, because no matter what we put out, people are blinded by those mozzarella sticks and always go for them."

Glenny said egg beaters, fresh fruit and cereal are daily healthy foods offered, and on Tuesday and Thursday nights, a yogurt and oatmeal bar is featured. Dave Carey (senior-music), who lives in North Halls, said he comes to South to eat at Late Night at Southside Buffet once a week.

"I'm just happy to have something open to eat at because I'm always getting hungry around this time," he said. "I told my friends about this and they started coming too."

Carey said his favorite part of the buffet is that they serve breakfast. "I love the home fries," he said. "They probably should offer more healthy options though, but I do like the selections."

Melissa Golebiowski (junior-public relations) said she likes that the commons serves breakfast and has a nacho bar. Jennifer Norfleet (junior-management) said she is happy to have a place to eat after most eateries close down.

"We're always complaining that nothing's open, and this is less expensive than convenience stores," she said. "I bet this would do really good in East Halls."

Maria Navarro (junior-accounting) said she feels the commons is great for studying needs. "It's really convenient because a lot of people are studying this time of night so it's great for a study break," she said. "Sometimes, I feel guilty eating this late though since I'm going to bed straight after."

Glenny hopes that throughout next semester, Late Night at Southside Buffet will become bigger and better.

"I'd like to do a The Hills-themed night on Mondays, but right now we have more people coming in during that time that [would] rather watch Monday Night Football," she said. "When football is over, though, we turn down the lights and blare up the music."

As the end of the semester rapidly approaches, Glenny predicts a lot of students will be coming to the Southside Buffet to get a midnight snack break from studying."It's going to be interesting to see what happens around finals time," she said.