Best of Tucson 1996: Best Inevitable Late-Night Restaurant

Best Inevitable Late-Night Restaurant

STAFF PICK: Somewhere between the closing of the clubs and the breaking of a new day you're unready to confront, there falls a time when all roads lead to Village Inn. Perhaps you're afflicted by the night-long assault of new music, loud conversation and your own misguided attempt to revive the Jitterbug. Or maybe you're engaged with an old friend and the two of you are really on a roll with reminiscence and rediscovery. Whatever the reason, the night's not over yet.

That's when Village Inn, with five locations near you, exerts its siren song. You're cruising around looking for a place to land, and the lambent orange glow of that trademark sign guides you in. Why fight it? Push aside the aluminum-framed glass portals, take sidelong note of the eerily-perfect pies in their case by the register. Glide familiarly along the tough industrial carpet. Take your rightful place in the vinyl booth. Share wisecracks, witticisms and an ever-fresh thermal carafe of the kind of coffee your parents used to drink. It's all a reassertion of normalcy, a decompression chamber for divers emerging from the depths of nightlife.

Soon enough will come the parting of the ways, but for now, how about some of that pie?