Maybe you’re leaving the bar after a few too many drinks. Maybe you’ve just escaped the office at a time when the happy people are gently falling asleep to the sounds of Netflix. Whatever the reason you’re hungry and unwilling to cook at 11 p.m., there’s got to be a better way than that one pizza place with the weird crust.
Next time you’re in carb-zombie mode, check out one of these late-night menus.
Lemon Hill
745 N. 25th St.
Lemon Hill is the kind of cozy, warmly-lit neighborhood bar where you want to wind down the night, and their late-night menu (daily, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.) seals the deal. Pastrami-fried chicken wings, burgers with crinkle fries, turkey legs with Texas Toast: This, tipsy friends, is professional drinking food. Order up one of their boozy craft cocktails and find a couch with a friend — this just turned into a Fairmount sleepover party.
Vernalicious
Every Saturday, Frankford and Girard avenues
You weren’t hallucinating the last time you stumbled out of Johnny Brenda’s and noticed a soft, angelic glow across Girard Avenue. Verna Swerdlow posts up in her Vernalicious food truck every Saturday to feed both the drunk kids looking for cabs and the locals looking for overstuffed sandwiches.
“It’s totally against my body clock, but it’s so awesome,” says Swerdlow, an admittedly natural early riser, who runs the truck along with boyfriend David Jurkofsky. “There’s no other way to describe it. I become very attached to the people. I know their names, I know what they order — our clientele is so loyal.”
Her late-night best-seller? It’s not much of a surprise: “I sell bucket-loads and bucket-loads of just simple grilled cheeses,” she tells us.
Jamonera
105 S. 13th St.,
Jamonera’s pared-down late-night menu won’t leave you wishing for the real deal. Served from 10 to 11:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, it offers $2 tiny tapas as well as a selection of larger “Kitchen Staff Snacks” ($5-$10), where you’ll find dishes such as short rib sliders, a fully-loaded Spanish breakfast and ham-stuffed waffles topped with smoky ice cream. It’s likely you’ll also luck into some mounds of crispy papas fritas — if you don’t tell the home fries, we won’t.
Follow Monica Weymouth on Twitter @MonicaatMetro.
