Late Nights

A key element in Joe and I's coffee habits over the years was the hours we kept. You could call us night owls, I suppose...it wasn't unusual for us to meet up around 10pm one night and stay out till just before dawn.

There aren't many places open that late, friends and neighbors. Fewer that were good for 8 hours of hanging out.

So while we may not have been as comfortable as we would have liked, Dunkin Donuts and White Castle (both 24/7) became our primary haunts. We would shake things up by picking out different locations, and by visiting Starbucks when we did hang out during normal business hours.

Waffle House (24/7) became another favorite during this stretch, since you could get good food pretty cheap in a semi comfy environment. Their coffee is also quite good...an extremely smooth blend, a solid flavor without being overpowering. And it was a valuable extra stop in our rotation.
There was an aborted attempt to work Perkins (24/7) into the lineup...but after two or three tries (one night we waited nearly 20 minutes to simply get seated) we gave up. IHOP (24/7) eventually made it to Cincinnati, and this was a welcome change of pace...but very expensive. And their coffee sucks, to be totally honest.

We would frequently get frustrated at the lack of places to just...hang out with a cup of coffee. We didn't want to buy a meal all the time. Didn't wanna sit in our cars. Didn't wanna sit on a plastic chair while some guy waiting to mop glared at us. We just wanted a coffee shop that was open in the middle of the night.

Apparantly, that's just too much to ask.