Dinner at midnight? Sure, it happens all the time in Spain. But most people would guess that if they wanted to step out for a meal at the witching hour, they'd better be in a big cosmopolitan city.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Michele McClendon, left, of Hill District and Sue Zitterbart of Squirrel HIll have dinner at The Elbow Room in Shadyside, a restaurant that serves until midnight. Click photo for larger image.

New Yorkers love to brag that they can dine any time of night in Manhattan. Parisians famously head to Les Halles for onion soup after painting the town red. And London's Covent Garden offers fish and chips at sunrise. Out West, San Francisco party animals make their way to Chinatown for a bowl of congee, the thick rice soup reputed to ward off "morning-after head." But in most smaller American cities, kitchens shut down well before Jay Leno's monologue is under way.

Happily, late-night dining thrives in Pittsburgh, where a unique culinary history assures unusual opportunities to step out for a meal even as coaches are turning into pumpkins in most American towns. When Pittsburgh's mills were cranking out steel around the clock, hungry souls needed hearty meals night and day. Little wonder then that the American capital of labor has long been able to boast restaurants serving wholesome food well outside conventional dining hours.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Klein's Seafood, Downtown, and Gammon's in East Liberty catered to the late-shift crowd. Stories abound of Allegheny College students driving from Meadville to Pittsburgh after pulling an all-nighter to bone up for an exam.

Their destination? The open-all-night Primanti Brothers joint in the Strip, where sandwiches stuffed with french fries and coleslaw sated night owls hoping to earn top grades.

After-hours dining in Pittsburgh remains a vibrant local tradition. Whether you are a student desperate for a study-break burger, on opera fan looking for a full dinner with fine wines after curtain calls or just a Pittsburgher who prefers Spanish restaurant hours, there is a Pittsburgh address ready to meet your needs.

DOWNTOWN

Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Maggie Ryan, left, of Sewickley and Wendy Kowal of Downtown talk to a bartender after lunch at The Tonic Bar and Grill, Downtown. Tonic takes dinner orders up to midnight Mondays through Saturdays. Click photo for larger image.

The Tonic Bar and Grill is the domain of Denise Gaynor, a lively woman who began her career in restaurants at age 12 with a dish-washing job and has never looked back.

After 20 years as a waitress and several years as the owner/operator of the Liberty Tavern, Downtown, Gaynor felt she knew just what was lacking on the local dining scene and set out to fill the void. When she found an empty building at 10th and Liberty, Downtown, she leapt into the fray.

Her goal was to create a happening place with a menu of foods from different regions of the world, served in small portions at fair prices by a friendly efficient staff. Her comfortable bar serves generous drinks. Cocktails are made with freshly squeezed juices.

The kitchen is open until midnight Mondays through Saturdays, but the place has a happy buzz up to the 2 a.m. closing time.

The Tonic kitchen consistently turns out tasty foods with an unusual twist. Where else will you find coconut-battered sweet potatoes with molasses peanut sauce ($6)? Or lettuce wraps filled with wild mushroom couscous and served with a sweet and spicy sauce with Asian roots ($6)? The winter season entrees include pumpkin-filled ravioli ($14) in brandy cream sauce or a classic Mediterranean bouillabaisse ($19) in a proper tomato broth laced with saffron. The Tonic Crab Cakes ($21) are unique.

Plump with lump crab meat, the cakes come on a bed of sweet potato pancake and arugula and are topped with saffron aioli and fresh tomato coulis. A panoply of sandwiches, burgers and salads are also on the dinner menu.

Wines by the glass range from $6 to $9. You had better have a designated driver if you decide to order a Tonic Martini. This signature drink is a whopping 10 ounces!

Tonic Bar and Grill, 971 Liberty Ave., 412-456-0460. Last dinner orders at midnight, Mondays-Saturdays.

Palazzo is a family-owned restaurant serving classic Italian specialties. The kitchen is open until midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Grilled sausage polenta or escarole and beans are $6.95. Pastas start at $13.95 and are served with soup or house salad.

Veal Piccata is $19.95. Palazzo's desserts are made in house; its Nutella Chocolate Mousse Pie ($5.95) is unforgettable. House wines are $6 a glass, and premium wines are $10.

Palazzo Ristorante, 144 Sixth St., 412-434-6244. Last dinner orders at midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Also Downtown:

Bravo Franco: 613 Penn Ave., 412-642-6677. Last dinner orders at midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Dowe's on 9th: 121 Ninth St., 412-281-9225. Last dinner orders at 12:30 a.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

The Original Fish Market: 1001 Liberty Ave., 412-227-3657. Kitchen and sushi bar close at 1 a.m. daily.

In the Strip:

DejaVu Lounge: 2106 Penn Ave., 412-434-1144. Last dinner orders 1 a.m. Mondays-Saturdays.

Roland's Iron Landing: 1904 Penn Ave., 412-261-3401. Last dinner orders at midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

SOUTH SIDE

Dish Osteria and Bar is the kind of place you would have to invent if it did not exist. Located in what was an early 20th-century tavern on a side street off East Carson, Dish is the creation of Michele and Cindy Savoia.

Michele is an American-born Italian who grew up in Sicily, where he began cooking in his grandmother's kitchen at age 6. It is the simplicity of Italian dishes prepared from the finest fresh ingredients that makes Michele's cuisine shine.

Calamari ($7.50) are grilled and served with sauteed fresh spinach and spiked with garlic. Carpaccio ($9) comes with a pile of arugula and thick slices of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, just as it would in Italy. Does anyone else in Pittsburgh offer Sicilian orange and fennel salad ($8)?

The grilled aged New York strip steak ($24) is exceptionally flavorful beef. It is served with roasted new potatoes with fresh rosemary and baby spinach lightly sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic. Grilled fish with shellfish ($23) is a daily selection of the freshest fish and shellfish available and served with saffron risotto and Sicilian eggplant caponata as only a Sicilian who learned at his grandmother's knee could make.

Michele has a constantly changing list of specials. I lucked into some fabulous loin lamb chops ($21) served with truffled mushroom polenta and sauteed broccolini. Desserts are made in the kitchen and include panna cotta with raspberry coulis ($4).

The wine list is small but adequate and focused primarily on Italian wines. Most bottles are less than $40. Glasses range from $5 to $8.

Dish Osteria and Bar, 128 S. 17th St., 412-390-2012. Last dinner orders at midnight Mondays-Saturdays. No credit cards. Reservations recommended.

Also on the South Side:

City Grill: 2019 E. Carson St., 412-431-1770. Burgers, sandwiches, steaks and pastas until midnight Fridays and Saturdays. You can buy cigars here and smoke them, too.

Pittsburgh Steak Co.: 1924 E. Carson St., 412-381-5505. This steak house also serves seafood and pasta and chicken until midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

EAST END

The Elbow Room on Ellsworth Avenue, Shadyside, opened in 1948 and was purchased by the Difiore family in 1979. Lisa Difiore, who is now the manager, has worked in the restaurant since her earliest memories. Originally a bar that served snacks, the Elbow Room became a full-fledged restaurant when the Difiores bought the adjoining building and expanded their operation.

It has become almost a clubhouse for Shadyside residents. One has the feeling that all of the patrons know each other and congregate regularly at the Elbow Room. According to Lisa, there are diners who eat at the Elbow room five or six nights a week and have done so for 10 years.

The Elbow Room is famous for its Hot Chicken Salad ($9), which begins with a layer of french fries topped by mixed greens, sauteed green peppers, mushrooms and onions and a grilled chicken breast. This is finished off with Cheddar cheese and tomatoes and browned under a grill. The 10-ounce burger ($7) comes with salad and fries. It is so thick that fitting it into the mouth is a super-human feat, but it remains the biggest seller on the menu.

The house wine glasses at the Elbow Room are as oversized as the burgers. They are filled with 8 ounces of wine for $6.

Elbow Room, 5744 Ellsworth Ave., 412-441-5222. Last dinner orders at midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

The Difiore family seems to have almost cornered the late-night market in the East End.

Michael Difiore owns Bites and Brews, which is next door to the Elbow Room and serves pizzas and paninis until 1 a.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. He also owns Buffalo Blues, which is a sports bar serving Southwestern specialities and great BBQ ribs.

Bites and Brews, 5744 Ellsworth Ave., 412-361-4425. Kitchen closes at 1 a.m.

Buffalo Blues, 216 S. Highland Ave., 412-362-5837. Kitchen closes at 1 a.m.

Also in the East End:

The Red Room: 134 S. Highland Ave., 412-362-5800. One of Pittsburgh's best chefs. Last dinner orders at midnight Mondays-Saturdays.

Gullifty's: 1922 Murray Ave., 412-521-8222. An extensive menu that goes from salads and sandwiches to pasta and steak and award-winning desserts. The kitchen closes at midnight Sundays-Thursdays and at 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

THE DINERS

Eat'n Park is not just a Pittsburgh institution but a local invention as well. In 1949, the first carhop establishment in America opened on Saw Mill Run Boulevard in the South Hills. This Eat'n Park was forced to close within hours of opening because of the traffic jams caused by eager customers wanting to try this novel approach to dining. Just four months later, the company opened a second Eat'n Park, followed by many more over the years.

Today, there are 31 Eat'n Park restaurants in the Pittsburgh region and more in Ohio and West Virginia. Pittsburgh's carhop service concept started a revolution in the food-service industry and was copied across the entire country. This was "drive-thru dining" a la 1950. When car service eventually died out, Eat'n Park morphed into a traditional family restaurant, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The menu has kept pace with modern dining trends, offering such features as low-carb or low-fat entrees, soup and salad bars, breakfast buffets, smaller portions with smaller prices for seniors, lactose-free ice cream and an espresso bar for specialty coffee drinks. Most suburban locations have free parking.

Eat'n Park Restaurants, eight metropolitan locations; go to www.eatnpark.com for a restaurant locator.

Ritter's Diner opened in 1950 in a boxcar parked near the rails in Station Square and for 55 years has been dishing up home-cooked specialties around the clock, seven days a week. The Velisaris brothers bought the diner in 1966 after it had moved to larger quarters on Baum Boulevard.

Today, 12 members of their family actively participate in running this venerable establishment and feeding a very loyal clientele. You are likely to see doctors from the Hillman Cancer Center across the street as well as truck drivers, police officers and delivery people at the beginning or the end of their work shift. The very friendly servers seem to know many people by name. Prices on the menu seem to be stuck in a time warp.

In addition to hamburgers and sandwiches and gyros there is liver and onions or meatloaf and mashed potatoes with gravy. The large well-lit dining room is divided into smoking and nonsmoking sections, and each booth is equipped with a jukebox outlet. Sitting at the bar provides access to nonstop group discussions.

It's a great way to take the pulse of Pittsburgh. Introduce your favorite subject and get the group's reaction. There is ample free parking provided by the restaurant.

Ritter's Diner, 5221 Baum Blvd., Bloomfield. 412-682-4852.

The newest kid on the 24/7 block is Tom's Diner. The first Tom's opened in 1981 in a trailer parked on the South Hills side of the Liberty Tunnel. It had nine stools and operated on an honor system. There was a box by the door where diners deposited what they thought was a fair price for their meal. Today, Tom's children own and operate Tom's Diners in three locations in the 'Burgh.

Tom's on East Carson Street has the retro look of the classic diner. Long and narrow with lots of black-and-white tiles and lines of booths, it attracts a young crowd of students and many local artists.

At 2 a.m., when South Side pubs close, the place is filled with devotees who come for the early bird breakfast special priced at $3.99. On weekends, from midnight to 4 a.m. and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tom's offers an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet with individually made omelettes for $7.95.

Tom's Diner, 1715 E. Carson St., South Side, 412-488-0900.

2937 West Liberty Ave., Dormont, 412-531-2350.

130 W. 8th Ave., Homestead, 412-476-3380.