This past Friday night, my friend Alex was in town, performing a show at LaSalle University. The show ran late and by the time the gear was packed and the cars loaded, it was about twenty to two in the morning. Where were we going to eat?

Someone suggested the South Street Diner, since it’s not that far from where I live. “No,” I said, “I think they close at two.” Nonsense! It’s a 24-hour diner! A sign on the building says so! “Nope,” I reiterate, “they close around two. They are not open 24-hours.”

My statements ignored, we drove down there—the only time you can get a good parking spot on South Street is two in the morning—and gathered in the diner’s doorway, still waiting on two more people, but were told that the diner would be closing in about five minutes, and if our friends didn’t show in in that time, they’d be locked out. Sit down or leave, basically. I could tell we were seriously annoying the hosts.

“WTF?” said Alex. “Let’s just go.”

The good news in this is that we met up with our other two friends at Maoz, which (I didn’t realize) really is open that late. Hooray! Late night felafel, awesome.

As we walked back to the car, we saw a couple trying to get into the diner. “It’s not open 24-hours,” we told them, but the girl pointed to the sign on the building, clearly stating 24 hours. “Yeah,” I said, “they lie.”

Related posts:

1. Broad Street Diner Closed?
2. Dear po-lice helicopter:
3. Trader Joe’s extended hours
4. Five minutes of great, several hours of eh
5. I know it’s 4:32am and all