Cambridge After Hours

It's late at night and you're starving. You dial 783-1565, but Babe's Pizza has just stopped delivering for the night. Sadly, you turn to your refrigerator, but upon opening it, you find two bottles of beer and some moldy cream cheese, but no bagels, and certainly no lox.

What do you do?

Well in New York, you would just walk around the corner to the all night deli and pick up a feast that would make Dagwood Bumstead full. But, alas, this is Cambridge, where even the subway stops running at 12:30 a.m.

However, there are a few places to frequent if you just cannot overcome that urge for a 1:45 a.m. cheesesteak or if you must have two more liters of Coke to keep you up for that all-nighter. And while their food won't win any stars in gourmet competition, these places will do the trick for the time of the night.

Tommy's Lunch: Tommy Stefanian has had a Harvard institution on Mt. Auburn St. between Plympton and DeWolfe Sts. for more than 25 years. As other food emporiums come and go, Tommy's remains. The crowd there can vary (and usually does) from Crimson and Lampoon editors, to Quincy and Lowell House partiers, to video game players, to smokers who just love to get yelled at for putting their feet on the furniture (a grave no-no at Tommy's). No smoking while playing Ms. Pac-Man, but good cheesesteaks and thick frappes (that's a milkshake in Bostonese). Tommy's is open 6 a.m.-2 a.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m.-3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturday nights.

The Tasty: Never closes. If you weren't looking for it, you would probably pass by it a million times without noticing it. The Tasty is less of an experience in food than an experience in sociology. Go there if you like to hang out with the Cambridge cops on their break, as well as most of late-shift Cambridge. Beware of ordering anything that looks like it's been around a while; it probably has.

Store 24: Just by its name, this all-night deli makes it the most familiar of after hours haunts. Don't eat their pre-prepared food, but look for specials on sizes of Pepsi bigger than you ever knew existed. At 2:30 in the morning, you can't beat Store 24's Entenmann's cookies and Doritos with Picante sauce, no matter how much they charge you. Why Store 24 stock mugs, mops, greeting cards and the like is a mystery to most Cantabridgians who never seem to run into the urgent need for them late at night.

White Hen Pantry: It's a mile-long walk up Mass. Ave to this Porter Square establishment; but if it's nice out, or even better, if you have a car, the trip is worth it. The Hen--or the Green Chicken, as the faithful call it--stocks more than twice as much as most late-night stores, and it's usually fresher. While you're there, don't miss out on the open deli, where you can get a relatively good and large sandwich for relatively little money. There are also tables at which you can sit around with friends while pounding your coffee, smoking your cigarettes, and reading tomorrow's Globe.

International House of Pancakes (IHOP): Not nearly as close as any of the rest, but if you're mobilized, there's nothing like going to the 'hop located just out Soldiers Field Road. The food isn't so great, but the key is to go with a lot of people and make stupid jokes to the waitresses. Nothing seems so funny as it does at 4 a.m. and chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream don't taste nearly as bad as they would when you're completely awake.

The Empire Deli: out by Fenway, this B.U. hangout is on the expensive side and probably not worth it. But it has real waitress service and offers just the right atmosphere if you're tired of rotten Ralph yelling at you in Tommy's. It's hard to tell when they have beer on tap, but it stops some time late in the evening.