On a recent homecoming weekend at the University of Wisconsin’s Whitewater campus, home to 10,000 students, the intersection of Main Street and Center Street was swollen with bar-hopping students. At closing time, 2:15 a.m., the munchies kicked in, and Toppers Pizza, the one joint in town open till 3, was there to serve.
“On Homecoming Saturday, we served about 700 orders,” says Matt Ziemann, 27, manager of Toppers’ flagship store in Whitewater. “We had upwards of 50 people packed into the lobby from 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m.”
The crowds can get pretty rowdy. On one occasion, a particularly rambunctious group pulled the bathroom sink out of the wall. Ziemann has since made an adjustment: “I put my biggest employee, a six-foot, five-inch 275-pound dude right in front of the counter to make sure things ran smoothly.”