EGN NEWS DESK
You by no means know who you may meet within the wee, small hours of an all-night diner.
Here’s a Navy man celebrating his final evening in New York City with mates earlier than being deployed. Over there’s a tipsy rock singer executing an ideal run-through of Michael Jackson’s dance strikes to “Thriller.” And in comes a 60-year-old intensive-care-unit nurse and her spouse, sitting all the way down to a romantic dinner after an extended evening of clubbing.
There’s a chaotic cadence to the 24-hour diner — a refuge the place patrons of all ages, backgrounds and tastes are welcome to bump elbows over patty melts and pancakes. Unlike the restaurant that retains conventional enterprise hours, the diner shape-shifts because the evening wears on and completely different sorts of consumers pour in. It could be no matter they want it to be — its menu, temper and playlist usually altering from hour to hour.
All-night diners are a signature New York establishment. But in a metropolis that supposedly by no means sleeps, they’re disappearing as prices rise, meals supply booms and many voters maintain the earlier-to-bed schedules they developed in the course of the pandemic. According to Yelp information, town misplaced 13 % of its greater than 500 round the clock eating places from February 2020 to January 2024, together with favorites like Neptune Diner in Astoria, Queens, and Arch Diner close to Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn.
In the midst of all these closings, at the least one place was reborn: Kellogg’s Diner, a stalwart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from 1928. It returned in September after a half-year hiatus, with new possession, a refurbished inside, a barely fancier menu by the chef Jackie Carnesi — and two months later, 24-hour service.
“It was a distinct segment that wanted to be stuffed,” Ms. Carnesi stated. “Post-pandemic, the variety of 24-hour eating places that ceased to exist left a giant gap within the coronary heart of New York City.”
To higher respect the magic of a restaurant that by no means closes, I spent a Friday evening at Kellogg’s, eating nonstop from 8 p.m. to eight a.m., seeing the restaurant by every of its transformations and assembly a motley combine of consumers. Surprisingly, I drew no scrutiny from the employees for my hourslong keep — a heartening reminder that no different place will welcome you as unconditionally as an all-night diner.
The Dinner Crowd
8 to 11 p.m.
With its cushiony cubicles, string lights, glass case of pies and neon signal glowing out entrance, Kellogg’s appears each inch the archetypal diner. But for my first few hours there, it felt like some other in style restaurant in prime time. Crowds waited for tables within the entryway. Groups of mates shared platters of nachos and bottles of orange wine chilled in buckets. Solo diners lingered over slices of pecan pie on the bar.
Perched on a type of bar stools was Megan Donovan, who works in promoting gross sales and lives on the Upper East Side. She rushed in round 9 p.m., ravenous after a pal’s birthday party. She had by no means been to Kellogg’s, however preferred how traditional it seemed from the surface.
“There is one thing common about it,” stated Ms. Donovan, 27, sandwich in hand. “Every diner, I can get a BLT and I do know it’s going to be good.”
She lamented that the one late-night choices lately appear to be fast-food chains. “I like Taco Bell high quality sufficient,” she stated, however “it’s good to have the ability to come and have a restaurant expertise.”
A number of stools down, Khoi Vinh, who works in luxurious gross sales and lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, had come by searching for a number of rings that he’d misplaced when he ate at Kellogg’s every week earlier.
“I don’t wish to eat finger meals with my rings,” he stated, “And so I put them on the desk and left them there.” He apprehensive they have been gone without end, however not lengthy after he ordered his chicken-fried steak, a bartender appeared with the rings — all of them.
“It is only a particular place,” stated Mr. Vinh, 40, slipping them on most of his fingers. “I really feel in group with these individuals.”
The Merry Revelers
11 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The martinis and pure wines gave approach to tequila photographs and vodka-sodas round 11. A brand new crop of company arrived both to gear up for an evening out or to maintain the party going.
They included Brandon Reyes, who would deploy to Italy on Monday for his subsequent Navy posting. Four mates had descended on New York from throughout the nation to see him off, and he had taken them to his favourite place since childhood: Kellogg’s.
“It is embedded in my tradition,” stated Mr. Reyes, 23, who grew up close by. “It is a part of my household. My grandmother has been coming right here for years.”
He didn’t thoughts that the menu now included a $95 rib-eye steak, or that the furnishings had been upgraded. He was simply relieved that the place was nonetheless open late. Without that, he stated, “it loses compatibility with the folks that reside right here.”
His mates requested the bartender to pour them a shot of his selection. “I don’t know what I simply drank,” stated Mr. Reyes. “But it was scrumptious.”
At 1 a.m., Kellogg’s switches to a late-night menu that features fewer objects however some additions, like a Cuban sandwich and cornmeal masa pancakes. Around that point, I noticed a manager take a nip from a squat flask of olive oil.
Joshua Ackley, the lead singer of the Dead Betties, a Brooklyn rock band, strolled in after celebrating his forty fourth birthday on the Lower East Side. “I used to play gigs at golf equipment in New York,” he stated, “and we might be like, ‘If we lose contact, let’s all have proof of life at Kellogg’s between 5 and seven a.m.’ ”
He missed the previous model of the diner. “It was extra accommodating to the individuals who didn’t have a lot cash,” he stated. “This is, like, $37,” he added, pointing to his chicken-fried steak (which was truly $24). “I wouldn’t pay that again within the day.”
Suddenly, the music “Thriller” got here on, and Mr. Ackley proceeded to carry out a lot of the well-known dance, solo, within the entrance of the eating room. Few clients appeared to note. He solely bumped right into a server as soon as.
The Wild Bunch
2 to five a.m.
At 2 a.m., the playlist all of the sudden modified from Top 40 hits to Seventies pop — Abba, the Go-Go’s, Boney M. The room grew to become noisier and extra raucous as individuals tumbled in from bars and golf equipment. One girl vomited onto her desk, then shrouded her head in scarves and was escorted out of the restaurant by a pal, trying like a celeb making an attempt to evade paparazzi. Our server shrugged, wiped up the mess and stated he wished her effectively.
A bunch of latest Stanford graduates recent from dancing at a close-by Afrobeats membership appeared at Kellogg’s round 3 a.m. searching for strong meals to absorb all of the drinks they’d consumed.
“I really like pancakes,” deadpanned Gabby Barratt, 22, a well being researcher. “Apartments are too small. Everyone wants someplace else to be.”
But the group wasn’t all 20-somethings. Maria Pino, 60, an I.C.U. nurse, got here in together with her spouse after they’d spent a date evening dancing at a membership.
“She will get hangry,” Ms. Pino stated of her spouse, who used to reside close by and didn’t wish to be named. (There can be no nightcaps, as state regulation prohibits eating places from serving alcoholfrom 4 to eight a.m.)
Ms. Pino loves the eccentric individuals she meets at all-night diners, and even witnessed a spontaneous marriage ceremony in a single 10 years in the past. She hoped town would by no means lose these spots.
“This will not be Arizona, this isn’t Virginia, that is New York,” she stated. “New York is 24 hours. You want a spot to go.”
The Stragglers and Early Risers
5 to eight a.m.
The blinds stayed drawn by the evening. But round 6 a.m., daylight slowly crept in by the slats, reminding me how lengthy I’d been there.
Just earlier than that, the lighting contained in the restaurant softened to a yellowish glow, a server starting his shift dropped a breakfast menu at our desk and the playlist shifted to jazz. A manager stated this was his means of signaling to the inebriated that they wanted to go away or settle down. A cleansing crew swept up maps, photographs and bottle caps from the evening earlier than.
Rachel Prucha and Lo Logsdon, each bartenders in Manhattan, had just lately completed their shifts and have been debriefing over enchiladas and espresso martinis. “This is our dinner,” stated Ms. Prucha, 30. “And breakfast.”
During the pandemic, there was no place for hospitality workers to eat after work, stated Mr. Logsdon, 29. He didn’t wish to order supply and pay all the varied charges. “Having this place again is so heartwarming,” he stated.
Then there have been the company simply starting their days, like D.Y. Kim, a venture manager at Google, who had simply flown again from South Korea a day earlier and was digging right into a plate of pancakes and an omelet. He awoke jet-lagged and craving breakfast meals, so he drove from his house in Downtown Brooklyn to Kellogg’s — one of many few locations open this early.
“We don’t have diners in Korea,” stated Mr. Kim, 35. “I used to be trying ahead to an American breakfast.”
And is there any extra American a spot to eat it than a 24-hour diner?
