Teen Center's Café Comes to Life

There's ping pong and Nintendo Wii, but until now the Outback Teen Center has been missing one key element for an after-school hangout: food. At long last the kitchen and dinner counter installed when the teen center was first built in 2001 is seeing some action. 

"I walked in and was like "ahhhhhh, give me food!" said Jessica Pickering, as she smelled the teenage fare being prepared by Apple Cart Food Company Friday. 

Ahmad Aziz, who also runs the snack bar at Mead Park, the Lake Club, and the lunch program at St. Aloysius School, has started cooking up a familiar menu that includes hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and pizza. Aziz says the café will also have weekly specials such as a turkey melt or grilled chicken sandwich. 

Eighth-grader Eddie Piltroski said that the food is great and so is the price. 

"Before here we'd go to the diner, but having this is a lot more convenient and a better price," he said.

No single item in the café is more than $5— a combo meal includes a drink and fries for that. 

While some teens are disappointed that they are no longer allowed to bring in outside food, Assistant Director Sarah Rivers says most percent "get it".

"We're hoping that it will bring more kids," Rivers said, especially because of the "teen-friendly" prices. 

The Outback also hopes to have more organizations and groups using the facility during the day when teens aren't there. New Canaan's Department of Human Services will be having a luncheon next week.

The café is open on a trial basis Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until June. 

"As we see the kids come in, the menu will be expanded," Aziz said. 

Most of the kids who ordered from the café Friday went for the chicken nuggets and fries. According to seventh-grader Erik Burns, the first one to order, the nuggets are "crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside—a nice texture, nothing like the school's."

Burns also tried the s'more cookie, which he described as "chocolatey gooey-ess and marshmallow stickiness."