There used to be late night coffee shops, and more late night restaurants.
That mostly went away years ago, basically completely died in COVID, and the labor shortages in the service industry never eased up enough to maintain staffing at places that had late night hours. And I do mean not enough people; the housing shortage is so acute that service workers cannot find places to live.
Rhode Island didn't have a lot of late night coffee shops even before the pandemic. But after it they're neigh impossible to find. At least outside of Providence.
I mean, in Texas is decidedly not in Seattle so the real estate dynamics are significantly different.
Houston has addressed population growth by spreading ever more outwards, because it is flat with few natural barriers. Seattle hasn’t really had a choice other than to grow upwards, since it is hemmed in by lakes and mountains in every direction. But like most American metropolitan areas, most of the Seattle region has until fairly recently been opposed to density.
The resulting housing crunch has resulted in significant demands for wages to pay for housing. Houston follows the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13/hr. Seattle does not have a different payscale for tipped workers so the minimum is $20.76/hr.
There’s cultural aspects to it. Europe, Middle East and Asia has a culture where there’s enough people up and about till late. People anre anre outside, often at third places like coffee shops that allow you to spend time without spending a ton. Even if you’re at home, you are not in bed at 9, like majority of Americans. I would assume the clientele at the Yemeni shops comes from a place that has the “stay out till late” culture.
Not all of Europe. I live in Ljubljana, Slovenia (the capital), and apart from 3 gas stations and 1 pharmacy, literally nothing works at night (2 or 3 nightclubs on the weekends). And people don't find it odd or have any significant dislike for it.
The rest of the country is even worse for night people like myself.
Yeah, I hate how COVID changed things so much for the worse.
If I was a crazy billionaire, I'd open a good pizza place in SLU or somewhere central with pies that cost $20 for a large, open til 3 am. Maybe aim to lose no more than $5,000 per month. It would not be profitable with the crazy high minimum wage, so I would just accept the loss for providing this benefit to the city.
The problem isn’t that the demand isn’t there or that the wage costs are too high. The main problems are high real estate costs and local regulations that prevent you from running a 24x7 cafe.
Then why are there almost no restaurants doing this? I see this in /r/seattle a lot: everyone asking for late night food, then restauranteurs saying there's not enough demand.
That mostly went away years ago, basically completely died in COVID, and the labor shortages in the service industry never eased up enough to maintain staffing at places that had late night hours. And I do mean not enough people; the housing shortage is so acute that service workers cannot find places to live.