By Ben Hitchcock and Gracie Kreth
It’s 1:44am on a Friday. All is quiet, but in a few minutes, everything will change when popular student watering holes Trinity, Boylan Heights, Coupes’ and other Corner bars flip on the lights, signaling the end of night. But just because the drinks have stopped flowing, that doesn’t mean a Wahoo’s night is over. Every weekend during the school year, as Charlottesville sleeps, hungry students descend on the Corner’s robust array of late-night eateries. Here are five of the most popular after-last-call snack destinations for UVA students.—Ben Hitchcock and Gracie Kreth
1. Sheetz
Yes, Sheetz. The gas station chain opened a location on University Avenue this past year, bringing all the glamour of a highway rest stop to the university’s venerable Corner. Sheetz’s hot dogs, mozzarella sticks and made-to-order sandwiches are some of the cheapest eats on the Corner—previously frozen or not, the inexpensive food is popular among students, especially after six vodka cranberries. Sheetz has computerized kiosks for orders, which are great for avoiding human contact when you’re slurring your words.
2. The White Spot
The White Spot is one of the Corner’s oldest businesses, but the greasy spoon is not immune to late-night boozy disarray. After a certain hour, it’s not uncommon to see a hungry student hop behind the counter and flip burgers to his heart’s content.
Many of the White Spot’s menu items toe the line between inventive and hitting the spot after a few (or several) white Russians. The go-to soak-up-the-booze menu items: the Gus burger, a hamburger topped with a fried egg, and the Grillswith, two grilled Krispy Kreme donuts covered with ice cream.
3. Marco & Luca
When potential clients have many choices and severely impaired decision-making skills, location becomes crucial. Fortunately, Marco & Luca is located just across the street from Coupe’s—as students stagger up the stairs from the bar, the first place that meets their eye is the dumpling shop.
Marco & Luca keeps its menu simple—perfect for college students fumbling to pull crumpled bills from their wallets—and recently expanded its menu from five items to a whopping seven. Tough luck, vegans, this is a pork-dumpling-only kind of place.
While the food is tasty, the best part of an evening at Marco & Luca is watching drunk people try to use chopsticks.
4. Christian’s Pizza
Christian’s Pizza on the Downtown Mall is a wholesome staple of life in Charlottesville, while late-night Christian’s on the Corner is loud and lively, a hub of oily, pepperoni-scented chaos.
Sharing a wall with popular bar Boylan Heights, Christian’s is dependably crowded, especially just after last call. The line snakes around the interior of the store, and wobbly students laugh and argue as they size up the offerings.
The staff serves pizza every night with stone-faced disinterest—there’s no level of drunken shenanigans they haven’t seen before. Slices have been flung, and Parmesan cheese has reached places where Parmesan cheese should never go.
5. Littlejohn’s
Littlejohn’s used to corner the late-night market for its 24-hour service, but the addition of Sheetz last year caused it to share its crown. No matter, not much has changed at this sandwich-slinging refuge, where it’s not uncommon to see students catching a few seconds of shut-eye while they wait for their companions to finish the last bites of their Reubens or Chipotle chicken sandwiches. There’s something calming about knowing no matter what went down that night, Littlejohn’s remains a beacon of light, a place of respite where the scent of deli meat lingers in the air.