Fourth meal is a legacy, an Oberlin tradition as beloved and bizarre as streaking through Mudd during midterms. However, Sunday night’s unveiling of the "new fourth meal" made it clear that midnight snacking is now the antithesis of what late-night dining at Oberlin once was. Up-rooted and moved a half-acre across Wilder Bowl from its former base in the Rat to the horrifying neon glow of Dascomb’s cafeteria, food options may have expanded, but all character and charm of the Rat have been lost.
An integral element of campus dining services for six years, fourth meal by definition was a loud, late-night, over-crowded escape from reality for stressed-out Obies. Any Sunday through Thursday between 10 p.m. and midnight, a line of students could be seen filing down the hallway in Wilder’s basement to wait for a delectably greasy snack. Hunger was never a necessary factor in whether to "fourth meal" or not, because it was understood that the purpose of any visit to the Rat was the social atmosphere.
Not everything has changed with the new fourth-meal regime. The social energy is still more interesting and appetizing than the French toast sticks, and the staff still look incredibly bored and tired when the clock begins creeping upon the midnight hour. There are even improvements in some respects. Dascomb seats two and a half times more people than the Rat, so seating arrangement options are more plentiful. Whereas in the Rat fourth meal rarely allowed for a solitary dining experience, Dascomb’s abundance of booths makes this possible. Needless to say, more seats also means less waiting time. Unfortunately, this is where the improvements end.
Dascomb is awkward, unattractive and unbelievably bright. A student seeking a post-library snack session is not generally looking for a well-lit environment. The neon intensity of Dascomb, a cafeteria that seems to utilize stadium-scale wattage, facilitates nothing more than neurological overkill. Equally detrimental to the fourth meal heritage is Dascomb’s pastel plush-and-vinyl booths — decades removed from the Rat’s retro mahogany interior. Sure, it was fun to bash the Rat’s décor (photos of wheat fields and golf sketchings), but somehow it was oddly soothing.
Dascomb also lacks the Rat’s trademark blaring music, hand picked by the student staff. In one week at the Rat you could hear everything from ’Nsync and Bob Dylan to Smashing Pumpkins, all in perfect complement to the chocolate mousse pie and fruit salad. At this point, Dascomb has no musical accompaniment to fourth meal, but Associate Director of Residential Life and Services Michelle Gross says this will soon change. “It’s hard to move the hustle and bustle of Wilder to a setting like Dascomb,” Gross said, “but music will make it more enjoyable.”
For the most part, the fourth meal menu seems to be sticking to tradition: Sundays are breakfast foods and Wednesdays are tacos and burritos. (In fact, Wednesday proved especially refreshing with its double taco or breakfast option. The dilemma for more than a few sampling students became, “Bean burrito or breakfast burrito?”) Dascomb’s mammoth proportions do allow for easier access to food and a slightly wider range of foods. Gross said that the fourth meal menu will slowly evolve, with new options brought in gradually to keep things fresh.
The bottom line? If you are hungry and it’s late at night, Dascomb will be there to pull you out even when your flex dollars gone. There’s plenty of food, no lines and lots of space. For first-years, fourth meal is probably close to heaven. For the older, fourth meal fundamentalists, Dascomb just doesn’t quite cut it. The question now is, when does the Feve re-open?