Students and faculty began eating from a newly-opened lunch window in the auxiliary gym on Feb. 19. The window, named “Coney Island,” serves different food daily and has received a largely positive response.

“We opened to create more variety and to reduce some of the crazy long lines,” Rachel Joslyn, assistant to executive chef Steve Martin, said.

Before the addition of Coney Island, the large size of the main lunch line in Manzanita resulted in several students spending portions of the lunch period waiting for food. Coney Island helps shorten this line and makes lunchtime more efficient by moving fried, popular items, including chicken tenders, hot dogs and French fries, from the main cafeteria in Manzanita to the auxiliary gym.

“We decided to call it Coney Island because we wanted to base it off of Coney Island in New York,” Joslyn said. “They have a lot of french fries, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, hot dogs: quick, easy, usually fresh food.”

Students have adapted well to the introduction of Coney Island, and many find the extra window practical.

“I like the type of cuisine that Coney Island offers,” Lisa Barooah (9) said. “Because we have an additional venue for eating, all the lines in the other places are a little bit shorter, and that’s very helpful.”

While the Coney Island staff has been mixing up meal options with items like Korean-style hot dogs, black bean chili and fresh potato chips, they do have a central theme for their lunch options.

“We’re playing with different ideas, but we want to stick with hot dogs and sausages as the main protein component,” Joslyn said. “We’re always going to have French fries, but on Fridays we’re going to try and do something baked. We always want to do a meat option and a vegetarian option.”

With the arrival of Coney Island, students now have the option of choosing from a total of nine different food windows which all offer various styles of food.