In every coffee shop ever

those were totally music reviews, i swear

there are probably more cafes in per capita in the US than in the 1920s left bank, now

CORPORATE COFFEE 4 LIFE

I just checked the two diners we hung out in when i was in HS on Long Island and one is open until 10pm on weeknights and midnight on weekends and the other until midnight every night. At the time we def drank coffee until they closed. Our other big hangout was the Borders books and music cafe which was open until 11pm at the time but no longer exists.

The bookstore cafe culture is definitely still a thing in Boston. Can think of quite a few places that stay open late and have that feel but maybe not as much as they were a few decades ago.

Upstate NY not so big on diners but man did we drink a lot of late night coffee at Denny's which, according to the internet, is open until 11pm these days.

I feel like Denny's and Perkins are very similar.

close enough

perkins always seemed more dank

lol yes. I have more experience with Perkins for some reason but yes.

I miss those heavy diner coffee cups. They are the best.

oh, also: pie. perkins has a variety of pies

i think of upstate NY as lousy with great diners! but i might be narrowly focused on 30s-40s prefab diners as design classics, and not so much on the actual food offerings.

and wow could i go for a slice of diner pie with one of those heavy mugs right now.

Man, I just had a couple cups of coffee out of one of those diner mugs (our fancy coffee place uses them) and it tasted so good. Their main blend kind of has that medium roast not too intense diner coffee quality but with more flavor.

Ok, maybe I was wrong about upstate diners I mean there's the Roscoe to start. I should have said there were none in the town I was in. Also, there's one every few miles on Long Island so most places feel like they don't have many in comparison. I loved all the train car ones in New England. Man, I really love diners.

It actually kind of drives me crazy that I live in a major university town and the coffee shops all close so damned early. After 6 pm every single one of them, save one Starucks location (which closes at 9), is closed. Where do students go to study late?

That is so weird. There were at least 3 open until 11 or 12 on the town I was in and they were filled with ppl studying or sometimes had open mic nights etc and like I said, I can think of a few in Boston/Cambridge. I wonder what's replaced them in places where they don't exist.

Student union? On campus places?

Must be, it always surprises me. I mean, even where I went to school in the middle of cornfields had multiple coffee shops open until 11 or midnight.

Looks like the Somerset Diner in NJ is still open 24-hours. I thought there were 3-4 diners open 24 hours back when I was in school, but maybe some of them were just open late and not 24/7.

I spent a lot of time in coffee shops (the non-diner kind) when I lived in SLC, where the majority of places I went to were open until late at night, which can probably be attributed to the non-drinking culture at large there. Then when I moved to Portland it was disappointing to find that hardly any coffee shops open past 6pm, and the one 24-hr place closed down a couple of years ago.

https://www.mrlocalhistory.org/excellent-diner/

Speaking of Jersey diners, here's the illustrated history of the Excellent Diner in Westfield NJ, a classic art deco 'railroad car" style establishment built in the '30s, where my parents hung out while they dating in the '50s. A few decades later it was sold and moved intact to Germany, and currently lives on at Euro Disney.

I'd love somewhere that stayed open late and wasn't a pub - just to hang out and drink (not booze) and read and, as doglatin says, not be at home. In the UK, it's a pub or nothing post 6pm. I've gone as far as planning to open my own just to have somewhere to go.

Nitro Cold Brew

I've been to a boardgames cafe a few times that does noes coffee and alcoholic drinks but is definitely not public at all. They stay open until midnight so that's a neat option every once in a while.

Xposts - I thought Mormons couldn't drink coffee hence the popularity of those crazy soda shops but that's neat that they had a lot there. I guess coffee shops do serve more than just coffee. I forget what the rule is but I think it's hot drinks that are forbidden rather than caffeine. Also I know not everyone in ut is Mormon it's just not somewhere I'd normally think of if we're talking coffee shops.

This is where you'd expect to walk in at the middle of the night and find chainsmoking beat poets, wiseguy movie characters, and people working night-shift jobs, ordering coffee at 3 AM.

Portland's iconic version of this used to be a place in NW Portland called Quality Pie. NB: the pies were of low quality.

xp I forgot about that but yeah coffee shops do have more than coffee... just me trying to find a reason why the majority of places there are open late while Portland doesn't really have that.

I'd love somewhere that stayed open late and wasn't a pub - just to hang out and drink (not booze) and read and, as doglatin says, not be at home. In the UK, it's a pub or nothing post 6pm. I've gone as far as planning to open my own just to have somewhere to go.

― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 29 February 2024 21:50 (thirty-three minutes ago) link

A clean, well-lighted place, if you will

It would be kind of interesting to see an analysis of whether late-night third places have in fact declined (seems like probably) and if so, what the main contributing causes are. I imagine the internet and streaming are part of it, since there are just a lot more home options for night owls now. But they don't exactly scratch the same itch as sitting somewhere.

Is another factor that the slot third places occupy has moved forward to earlier in the day

slc still has a few late-night options but it's definitely moving towards closes-at-6-pm third wave places. you will never have been to a city that so desperately wants to be cool and so consistently falls short as salt lake because it has major identity angst.

I’m so used to going to shops in the morning that I’m sure I’d feel confused af if I went at night. Like cross-global jet lag

Of course you get cafes here in the UK, but they all largely close by 3 or 4pm unless they convert to dining places

Have you never been to a 24hr greasy spoon? Or the ones that open at about 4am? Mostly aimed at taxi drivers/construction workers or other working people who don't do a 9-5, they're also good for people who stay up too late boozing.

Not saying this to totally counteract your claim, btw - my impression is that they were fairly rare to begin with and almost extinct now - but more to say that you can find something similar to a late-night cafe in the UK. There are probably still a fair few of these in London.

I'm sure there are. It would be interesting to track them down and visit them.

There's one very old school greasy spoon diner in downtown Boston that is open 24 hours. I am so happy it's still there. I'm sure there are a few in NY. We used to go to one by Lincoln Centre a lot. The people watching in this places at 3am is the best.

those not this places

I bet at least 1% of the clientele at those places is freelance journalists writing a slightly edgy "slice of life" piece about the colorful cast of characters who come into a diner late at night

It would be funny if two were there at the same time and one accidentally wound up interviewing the other.

Man alive I was wondering if younger ppl are more likely to text or video call rather than meet up but idk I am not a young person (sad) and that seems like that can't be the reason but my first thought was that it had to be something to do with the internet or tech.

lol you're probably right. That and very/drunk stoned ppl.

I know this is about coffee but miss anything being open late. Overall I do think things close much earlier here. I'm going home next month and want to go to target at 9:30pm just be cause I can. Might even get a coffee too though the Starbucks might close earlier I can't remember.

It's one of the things I def don't like as much about the suburbs - stuff closing early. And the coffee place in my town closes RIDICULOUSLY early, like some days 1pm.

There is one nice, clean pub that's not bad as a hangout, but it's too small and local for me to just go alone -- you can't really hide there. I would feel awkward, and I also don't really like drinking alone.

Maybe the 90s were the pinnacle of US coffee house culture. I do think they're out there but maybe less so now.

https://i.ibb.co/chRdBLs/Screenshot-20240229-233039.png

Have you never been to a 24hr greasy spoon? Or the ones that open at about 4am? Mostly aimed at taxi drivers/construction workers or other working people who don't do a 9-5, they're also good for people who stay up too late boozing.

Not saying this to totally counteract your claim, btw - my impression is that they were fairly rare to begin with and almost extinct now - but more to say that you can find something similar to a late-night cafe in the UK. There are probably still a fair few of these in London.

― emil.y, Thursday, February 29, 2024 11:01 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

There were some late night cafe-type places around Finsbury Park, seemed to be for the Somalian or Eritrean communities. Not sure if they're still around or not. I'd see people in there from the top deck of the N29 so open pretty late I think.

great revive

what a generous post, Doctor Casino

aw shucks, thanks! been enjoying the revive overall.

Maybe the 90s were the pinnacle of US coffee house culture. I do think they're out there but maybe less so now.

The 90s were a golden age of independent coffee houses. Then Starbucks rolled out nationwide. The independents aren't completely extinct (especially if they were able to diversify into bakeries/cafes and/or get a liquor license), but there was considerable attrition.

There are quite a few decent independent coffee houses around me, but they have even briefer windows of operation. One closes at 2 pm! Another closes at 4! Like, not even the option to stop by after work for a cup and to read for a bit to decompress. I'd frequent them way more often if they were open a little later.

It actually kind of drives me crazy that I live in a major university town and the coffee shops all close so damned early. After 6 pm every single one of them, save one Starucks location (which closes at 9), is closed. Where do students go to study late?

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 29, 2024 2:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

this is what i'm talking about. your options are usually denny's or a fast food restaurant. i love diners and have been coming to or living in the us for 20 years and the situation has deteriorated in that time. starbucks closes at 8 or 9pm, and the airpsace 3rd wave places close at 5 or so. late night diners not called denny's are very rare. a bit city might have one 24 hour diner. staggered by how early everything closes on the west coast. nyc has more options, but late night/early morning diners are not _that_ much more common in nyc than greasy spoons in london. they keep closing.

https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2019/5c937fd872171.jpg

not sure if phones caused third places like coffee shops to close, or their closing drove social stuff online, but seems like a feedback loop at this point.

lots of research on this general trend predates phones, so it's not _just_ phones, e.g. https://www.headhousebooks.com/book/9780743203043.

Me.

In the coffee shop I'm always posting about in the CVS thread, the owner had some people behind the counter today looking at various things. I asked him a few minutes later if he was selling. Yes--turns out it's been on the market for a year. "I want to retire, Phil--I want to spend all my time in coffee shops playing on my laptop" (gives me a friendly pat on the shoulder).

He's not wrong.

vegetarian sandwich with "seitan/satan" pun in the name

“Our Seitanic Majesties’ Request”

*opens coffee shop just so I can put that on the menu*