Best Late-Night Snack

For a city filled with fun-loving folks, San Francisco sure shuts down early. Those emerging after last call from a club or a bar are stuck with the same pedestrian late-night snack choices over and over: diner food from a number of passable, though uninspired, joints in pockets of the Castro and the Avenues. Since you're going to be eating mediocre grub anyway, why not do it in a spot with unusual local color? S.F.'s post office processing center (known to the feds as the San Francisco P+DC) out on Evans Avenue is open 24/7, and so is its open-to-the-public cafe. Sidle up to the short-order counter, ask for coffee and a burger or a $2.50 grilled cheese, and take your seat in the battered plastic chairs scattered around the small room. With video games, a pool table, and the spectacle of grotty neighborhood regulars and grouchy postal workers turning up for breaks and middle-of-the-night meals, it's a fun place to while away the pre-dawn hours.