By Lea Schmidt
Boston is an amazing city. It’s the ideal place to go to school. Well, almost ideal.
If there’s one thing the city lacks, it’s 24-hour diners — or 24-hour anything for that matter. For those students from Long Island and New Jersey, the thing missed most, next to mom’s home cooking, is probably the late-night diner that residents are so accustomed to.
Can’t find anything to do? Go to the diner. Are you hungry at 5 a.m. after partying all night? Go to the diner. A good diner is pretty much the answer to everything. Needless to say, it’s a harsh slap in the face to come to Boston, only to find it a city void of late-night mozzarella sticks and potato skins.
There is at least one solution to this conundrum, and it’s the South Street Diner. Not only does it provide relief for those late night cheese fry cravings, it’s a nice change from those omelets by Stetson East’s Jenny that students at Northeastern are so used to.
Four dollars and fifty cents will not only get you a cheese omelet, but a cozy atmosphere as well, at any time of the day or night.
You may even bump into a celebrity. According to its owner, people like Robert Plant and Boston’s own New Kid on the Block alum, Jordan Knight, have eaten there.
Ten different movies have been filmed there, and it has been featured in magazines like Rolling Stone and Forbes.
The diner has a wide variety of customers, from college students to businessmen, and that’s what Sol Sidell says gives the diner its charm. He has owned the diner for six years and says, “You see the whole world go by you in 24 hours. It’s been a dream come true.”
The diner is busiest between 1a.m. and 4 a.m., and is best known for its breakfasts and burgers. Whether you go at 10:30 a.m. for a ham, egg and cheese on a bagel with a side of home fries, or 2:30 a.m. for an order of chicken quesadillas and an ice cream soda, the South Street Diner is worth the trek.
“We try to meet your expectations, and beat them,” Sidell said.
To get there, take the Red Line to South Station, it’s across the street and around the corner, at 178 Kneeland St.
