Bars are notable for staying open late, but I’m not really familiar with alternatives that might operate similarly. I think many cafés (at least around my area) tend to close a few hours earlier by comparison, which would be my go-to for an alternative otherwise, so what other options are there?
There isn’t much drinking at swingers clubs. At least not in the public areas.
ಠ_ಠ
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Dance clubs, comedy shows, open mic, tabletop gaming clubs.
LAN parties (showing my age).
It depends where you live, but my go-to was 24 hr cafes and other food places, but there are also other activities like late night fishing, long drives (or rides), night photography, etc
Second this, internet cafe near me is open till 4am.
But my house has WiFi and coffee and it’s basically my internet cafe with random children/wife/cat coming and going at various times. My favorite thing to do at nighttime with friends is go longboarding or biking. Shit is awesome.
As a guy who goes on group motorcycle rides and owns an electric skateboard, faccs.
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I didn’t know about these and found one in my city. Thanks for the tip!
I help run a makerspace (hackerspace with a fluffier name). We’ve done many an all nighter. Often for no good reason, other than we got going on an interesting topic!
We are not all college aged though.
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Virginia/ Orange raise up!
I like this idea. I found one in my city that’s not even that far away. I might have to check it out
Same. I also found one in my city, might have to come by sometime.
Is hackerspace the common term for these? I think I’ve also seen makerspace, or at least it sounds like there’s overlap. I may have to do some more searching along these terms, but any time I’ve read of these it seems like they’re more around larger cities or university towns/cities, which I don’t happen to live in at the moment.
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Interesting.
For me, Makerspace always made more sense. You go there to make something. Hacking, while not negative, always has the meaning of modifying existing things to me, which does not always apply.
I hack together an item = I merge several items into one. I hack an item = I modify an item.
Not a native speaker, so I’m unsure if that is the correct usage.I always expect to see avid golfers show up to a hackerspace and get confused….
Or horseriders :D
Or trash novel writers ;D
24-hour coffee shops
24-hour diners, though they can get a little interesting at night. Do not underestimate a waffle House at 3:00 in the morning
24-hour libraries: these are rare
24-hour restaurants like burrito places.
Really depends what you want to do, do you want to just chill, or do you want to hang out with friends, or do you want to eat, there’s a lot of options.
Unfortunately 24 hour libraries, or even late night, are pretty much non-existent now because 1) parents use them as babysitters and 2) nothing against homeless people but librarians aren’t equipped or staffed to take care of them appropriately.
And now with the book bans librarians are in short supply too, which means shorter hours and even fully closing on some weekdays.
Support your local library, everyone! See if there’s a “friends of” group. It’s a great way to connect with your community.
This is one of the unfortunate things. I never wanna hang around in libraries anymore. Decent number of people that look scary, and the bathroom stalls have been cut down so low to make sure people can be revived if they OD that I don’t really feel comfortable using the restroom there anymore. Hardly any privacy.
I wanna solve the drug problem and housing problem so that our public spaces are chill again. When I was a kid, there were “cool” homeless people that all the students got to know as we all rode the same bus lines, basically just people down on their luck, but otherwise normal. Nowadays, it’s only aggressive drug addicts who are angrily shouting because they can’t afford the medicines that help keep them moored, made worse by fentanyl. Would really appreciate universal Healthcare and goverment funded public housing for normies and for people down on their luck or perhaps those getting a second or third chance at life.
can’t afford the medicines that help keep them moored,
Or their MDs don’t believe that the medicines help them, or they can’t afford to even make it to the appointment, or they feel better mentally but worse physically and their MD won’t help them find an Rx with better side effects because the MD has this notion that you’ve gotta suffer when you’re disabled, or…
Being on the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum sucks. Trust me.
Several of my friends in my mid 20s didn’t drink, so we usually would hang out at hookah bars. They are great, especially if they are allowed to serve food where you live. Most at least serve tea and other non-alcoholic beverages. I can give you a few pointers for first-timers if you are interested.
Probably coffee shops
Book clubs. When I was driving a night taxi, the latest customers on workdays were book club people.
Music clubs too possibly, especially jazz.
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Yea I had the same feeling like what you’re describing.
Yeah and I imagine these book clubs don’t meet particularly late.
I dunno, my ex used to go to book club meetings all the time and wouldn’t be back until the next morning
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Some book clubs are open for everyone.
We have a sandwich shop that runs 24 hrs from Tuesday morning until Saturday night. I’ve picked up late night supper there and seen people playing cards, etc and just generally hanging out for long stretches.
When I was younger my buddies and I went to a 24 hr diner and played magic into the wee hrs, occasionally leaving only when the earliest breakfast crowd started to roll in.
Pre covid we had a game group we found on meetup. We’d go on Wednesdays to Fuddruckers, buy an appetizer and some drinks and then just rove from table to table and play what game seemed good. Made some neat casual friends that way. Our group would rent out the back room every week. Post covid we couldn’t afford the appetizer (went back to school for a better job. Poverty yay!) so our game nights have been at home.
I hope you tipped well, lol. my tabletop RPG group may have been known to do this. the waitress kept us up on coffee, so yeah, we might have tipped for the time rather than the percentage of the bill. probably the only reason we never got kicked out.
Plus a table of customers/witnesses through the small hours of the morning can’t hurt, makes the staff feel a little bit better.
I had a group like this when I was the graveyard shift at Denny’s. I’d get them three apps for eight people, slap down two liter jugs of coke, and they’d collectively leave me about twenty bucks for basically no work on my part. Nice kids, they were usually in there once a week and they always called ahead to make sure it was okay.
They played Vampire: Masquerade, which honestly seems like a depressing setting but they were into it.
heh. we were at perkins, and we mostly played stardrifter there. We would have been okay if that’s about all that happened, but they actually kept us in coffee and creamer, and happily brought out the snackage when we asked. The tips were well worth the service.
That brings me back. Many nights at Perkins playing magic, shadowfist, shadowrun, homebrew ttrpgs.
We tipped well, management and the servers loved us. One night a waitress was having a particularly bad night and said just once she’d like to pour a drink on a customer. I volunteered and got a free meal out of it.
Re: Vampire. It can be, but doesn’t need to. It’s set in the real world, so it’s as depressing or not as our world can be.
Bowling Alleys (some), late night museum tours, late night roller skating.
They all have exposure to alcohol still. But can be enjoyed sober.
daycare /s
Whataburger, Winco Foods, insomnia cookies, Denny’s, and other diners come to mind. Since covid, hardly anything is open late anymore.
You might be able to find some other places local to you that we won’t know aboht, if you satay up late and use the “open now” option on Google maps.
Sheetz if you’re in the North East US
Why the fuck would you hang out at WinCo foods in the middle of the night. Just get a fucking graveyard shift job.
Night owls still need groceries and it’s best to shop when you’re more awake and alert. When I worked a graveyard job, Winco was a lifesaver. I thought if better to include more for those who might be interested.
Lol my wife and I absolutely used to go to 24 hour grocery stores at like midnight on weekends back before we had kids. We both love cooking so it was fun to slowly peruse the aisles looking for random things we hadn’t noticed before and coming up with ways to use them.
Lame I guess, but neither of us likes bars that much and we couldn’t afford to go out that often anyway.
Different strokes for different folks, and all that :)
If it’s to hang out with friends then those private karaoke rooms are a lot of fun
Crack houses are usually open 24/7 and while you can drink alcohol there, you’re not expected to do so
Crack isn’t optional though, it’s either crack in your veins, or your neck getting cracked.
