For any student, the thought of a warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie with a cold glass of milk late at night in Perkins Library is a welcome fantasy.
But starting tonight, students can stop dreaming-and simply salivate.
Midnight Cookies, a new Merchants on Points vendor started by senior Erick Rabin, will begin delivering tonight, adding more variety to Duke's late-night dining scene and an extra treat for those with a nocturnal sweet tooth. The business boasts a diverse menu of everyone's favorite sweet snacks, ranging from cookies to frozen yogurt and complemented by milk and coffee.
Rabin said he got the idea for Midnight Cookies when he heard about similar businesses at other universities and thought that there was too little variety in Duke's late-night dining options.
"I thought it would be kind of cool to start something that catered to people who were hungry and didn't have anything to eat," he said. "Since we're not in a real city environment for the most part, it's easier to have things delivered to you than it is to just walk out of your dorm and go someplace."
Demand for the cookies is already showing itself on campus, as some students have already tried to order from the business before its grand opening.
Sophomore Emily Zhao said she and her friends had planned to order from Midnight Cookies last weekend before learning the cookies were not yet available.
"[When] we called and nobody picked up, it was devastating," she said. "Because you know, college students definitely need their sugar rush at night."
Midnight Cookies will be open every night except Sunday, from 9:30 p.m. until 1 a.m., and will operate out of the kitchen of Tommy's Rubs and Grubs. Students can place an order in three ways: calling in a delivery, walking into Tommy's or buying from the business's signature golf cart covered in cookie logos that will drive around West Campus to make deliveries.
The vendor will deliver to West until 1 a.m. and to Central Campus, East Campus and off-campus locations until midnight. The delivery times, however, are tentative and may be extended depending on student demand, Rabin said.
He began work on the business last semester when he started pitching the idea around the University's dining administration. He was then connected to Tommy's Owner Tom Meyer, Trinity '91, who has become his mentor in getting Midnight Cookies off the ground.
Meyer, who is Rabin's primary partner in the business, said he has mainly given Rabin advice on how to make the business successful through points like structuring the menu and keeping costs low.
A number of students praised the originality of Rabin's idea, and said they agreed that late-night dining at the University was scarce.
"I think it's a great idea knowing that for me, I never get up early enough to eat breakfast. So I always get hungry at night, and ordering cookies gives you something that's uniquely different," sophomore Peter Bang said. "Always ordering pizzas and subs gets old, but cookies are amazing."
In the future, Rabin said he plans to keep promoting the business and trying to integrate it into campus culture by coordinating his services with student groups.
"We want it to be something that people feel affectionate about," he said.
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