Late night breakfast at The Nicollet Diner

Late night downtown is not a music video. It is a cook turning a ticket for pancakes while a table of theater people debate whether they have room for a shake. It is a rideshare driver eating eggs because this is the first sit-down meal of the shift. It is someone in a sparkly jacket from upstairs at Roxy's, still in show mode, ordering the Wakin' Bakin' like it is a curtain call.

I used to work overnights before I owned the overnights. I like the hour when the city gets quieter and the orders get more honest. Nobody is performing "sensible lunch" at 2:15 a.m. They want what they want. Hash browns. Jumbo wings. A chocolate malt. The Hangover Breakfast, which is three eggs and all the meats and is named with a lack of subtlety I respect.

Public safety comes up whenever anyone talks about downtown after dark. I live here. I work here. I am not going to sell you a fantasy or a panic. Use your head. Know where you are going. We keep the dining room lit and staffed. The Convention Center corridor still moves people. The neighborhood still has residents who walk their dogs at hours that would surprise a suburb. If all you read is the worst headline of the week, you will never come downtown, and then the headlines get to win.

We stayed open through the years when a lot of late night rooms did not. Delivery when the dining room was weird. The full menu when the full menu was a lot to ask of a skeleton crew. I am proud of that in a quiet way. Not a billboard way. A "the grill is still on" way.

If you are looking for late night food in Minneapolis and you are already on Nicollet Mall, you do not need a scavenger hunt. 1333. Breakfast, burgers, wings, ice cream. The same menu as noon. That is the whole pitch.

— Sam