can you do a follow up and report on who's actually in these places at 2:30 am on a weeknight? I'd love to know how/why all those ID Chinese joints do it.

@1 Club kids and restaurant people who aren't ready to go home yet.

Really? No love for 13 Coins? Some of us don't want to take our date/partner/spouse out for a hot dog.

In the future everything will close and open at 9 o'clock.

@2 club kids who aren't ready to go home and restaurant people who really need the wages.

@2: so if i go to Ho Ho at 2 am on a wednesday morning, it's all club kids?

It's funny, hearing people complain. 15 years ago when I first moved here, there were a lot less options than there are now. Everything closed at 11 or midnight. The only option on Broadway I remember is Minnie's. Where the service ranged "from indifferent to downright hostile" as the classic Stranger review or Minnie's used to say. Other than that, there was a 24 hour Italian place open in the Udistrict where the Metro theaters are now. And 13 Coins. That was IT from what I remember, other than the good old dive places. Now you need both hands to count the places that are open, I'd say we have it pretty good. It's a shame I have to be a grownup and go to a real day job now, days of running around Seattle all night post college are over.

Got another "hey, you missed ..." Belltown: Green Leaf, until 2 am. Enjoyed late-night pho there now and then with my fellow-night-owl kid until he left town for college. (Our side of the bay is still short on late-night-dining options.)

Forgot to mention IHOP on Madison ... important because that's your closest option whenever Lost Lake decides to close its kitchen at 3 am.

Mecca Cafe, until 2AM.

As for the ID, I lived there & yeah, it's a handful of fearless kids that'll stop off for greasy eats.

When you think you've been waiting an hour at Lost Lake, it's because the service is terrible, not because you're drunk. Why doesn't Meinert just have his own newspaper already? Oh, wait. He does.