Where to Grab a Late Night Bite
Diners, not dives, top the list of late night dining options in Fairfield County.
Fortunately, Fairfield County residents have more late-night dining choices than comedian Buddy Hackett's two: take it or leave it.
That said, wee-hour eateries are not considered to be the area's strong suit. So it's interesting to see how many places there are to grab a bite well after dark all around the county.
"Norwalk is definitely king of the late night scene in Fairfield County, as well as Stamford if you don't mind going a bit further south," says food guru Amy Kundrat, proprietor of one of the area's gastronomic go-to guides on the web, CT Bites.
Pam Dufour, owner and operator of another great online area food resource, Fairfield County After Dark, says that late-night eating just isn't a big priority for most residents.
"Just based on the analytics on my website, it's not one of the biggest things that people are looking at. It's not huge," she says.
Dufour's site does have a section specifically devoted to late night eating.
"The late night section is the place to go for me if I need to find something to eat late at night," she says. "It's good to be able to go to a website and find that out pretty quickly."
The county used to have a number of places that were open much later, but many pared their hours back when they realized the extra time didn't mean extra customers.
"We do get a good amount of people that come in after 10 p.m., that's late enough for where we are here in Wilton," says Demetri Papanikolaou, one of the owners of the well-known Route 7 staple Orem's Diner. "There's not much traffic on the road after that, anyway...when we first moved to our current location, we were open much later. But we found between midnight and 2 a.m. that there just wasn't that much more traffic. So we decided to scale back [on our hours]."
Tony Pertesis, manager of Andros Diner in Fairfield, says that being open 24 hours actually benefits them. He admits that could be because Andros is one of only a handful of eateries open that late so people already know to go there. He also says they get a fair amount of traffic after the Fairfield bar scene lets out.
"This one's the hot spot after all the clubs on the weekends," Pertesis says. "It gets crazy in here...everybody comes here and eats. The weeknights, obviously, are a little less. But people still come in late to do their homework, meet up with friends."
So where to go when the munchies kick in around or after midnight?
We asked around for resident recommendations and we've included our list below. But please feel free to include your favorites and thoughts in the comments section below, especially if we've missed anything!
Darien
- Duchess - Dining room closes at 11pm, drive-thru closes at midnight.
- Darien Diner - 6am - 10pm
Fairfield
- Andro's - 24 hours
Greenwich
- The Ginger Man - Kitchen: Mon - Thu, 11:45am - 10pm; Fri - Sat, 11:45am - 11pm; Sun, 11:45 - 9pm
- Glory Days Diner - Sun - Thu, 6am - 2am; Fri, Sat, 24 hours
New Canaan
- The New Canaan Diner - 6am-10pm
Norwalk
- Sugar & Olives - Dessert and drinks: Sat, 9:30pm - midnight
- The Ginger Man - Sun, Mon, 9am - 11pm; Tue - Thu, 10am - 12am Fri - Sat, 11am - 1am
Ridgefield
- Luc's - Mon - Sat, Open from 11am to 10pm; Sun, Closed
- Little Pub - Kitchen 11:30 am - 10:00 pm
- Dimitri's - Mon - Sun, 7am - midnight
Shelton
- Plaza Diner Restaurant - Sun - Thu, 6am - midnight; Fri, Sat, 6am - 1am
- The Riverdale - 24 hours
Southport
- Athena Diner - 24 hours
Stamford
- Curley's - 24 hours
- Bulls Head Diner - 24 hours
- Pat's Hubba Hubba - Sun - Thu, 9:30am - 1am; Fri, Sat, 9:30am - 3am
Wilton
- Orem's - Open 6 a.m. to Midnight
Weston/Redding/Easton
- The Lumberyard Pub - Mon, Tue, 3pm - close (around 1am); Wed, Thu, noon - close (around 1am); Fri, Sat, noon - 2am; Sun, noon - close (around 10pm - midnight). Sunday brunch buffet, noon - 4pm
- Georgetown Saloon - Mon - Thu 11:30am - 1am; Fri, Sat, 11:30am - 2am; Sun, noon - 1am
Westport
- Sherwood Diner - 24 hours
In This article
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Duchess Restaurant
306 Post Rd, Darien, CT -
Darien Diner
171 Post Rd, Darien, CT -
Andros Diner & Restaurant
651 Villa Ave, Fairfield, CT -
The Ginger Man
64 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich, CT -
Glory Days Diner
69 E Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT -
New Canaan Diner
18 Forest St, New Canaan, CT
-
Sugar & Olives
21 1/2 Lois St, Norwalk, CT -
The Ginger Man
99 Washington St, Norwalk, CT -
Luc's Café & Restaurant
3 Big Shop Ln, Ridgefield, CT -
little pub
59 Ethan Allen Hwy, Ridgefield, CT (Junction of route 7 and route 102) -
Dimitri's Diner
16 Prospect St, Ridgefield, CT -
Plaza Diner Restaurant
737 Bridgeport Ave, Shelton, CT -
The Riverdale
521 River Rd, Shelton, CT -
Curley's
62 W Park Pl, Stamford, CT -
Bulls Head Diner
43 High Ridge Rd, Stamford, CT -
Pat's Hubba Hubba
820 Cove Rd, Stamford, CT -
Orem's Diner
167 Danbury Rd, Wilton, CT -
Lumberyard Pub
2 Main St, Redding, CT -
Georgetown Saloon
8 Main St, Redding, CT -
Sherwood Diner
901 Post Rd E, Westport, CT
Rob
11:28 am on Sunday, April 3, 2011
You can't do an article on fabulous diners without mentioning City Limits in Stamford and White Plains. One of our favorite restaurants - but they call it a diner. CIA trained chefs. West Street exit off 95, on the south side of the highway.
City Limits Diner
135 Harvard Avenue
Stamford, CT 06902-6304
(203) 348-7000