Few students roamed the University campus on the brisk morning of Friday, Jan. 12, but the Overlook was having a busy day. Between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., breakfast was on the house at the Overlook for "Customer Appreciation Day."

"We were trying to think of something fun to do over winter break," Russ Meyer, associate director of residential life, housing and food services, said.

Meyer said the event was planned to occur when only a fraction of the University population would go to the Overlook. Although Meyer wanted to avoid too large a crowd, 50 to 100 more people attended and exceeded the anticipated number of customers.

"We expected somewhere around 250 people and we probably had between 300 to 350 show up," Meyer said.

The Overlook ordered more items than usual to prepare for the event, in expectancy of the larger influx of customers. Even so, Meyer said they had run out of some pastries by 10:30.

"We ordered 3 times the amount of pastries that we usually ordered and we still ran out of some," Meyer said.

A variety of breakfast items was available for the customers including coffee, doughnuts, and bagels. Coyote Jacks, the only vendor open in the Overlook that morning, also served their usual items for free.

The University has hosted similar customer appreciation days at dining facilities before, but this was first to offer entirely free meals.

"We've done customer appreciation days where we've sampled products, and given away some food, but not one where everything was free" Meyer said.

Judging from this particular event's success, Meyer said there will be more customer appreciation days, although specific details of the upcoming events remain undecided.

"We'll continue to appreciate our customers, we just don't know in what fashion," Meyer said.