Best of 2000: Best Place To Get A Meal At 4:30 A.M. Downtown

The Snack Galley, Greyhound Depot, open 24 hours
120 West Broadway, Downtown
(619) 234-4522

Dead is not the word for downtown San Diego in that 90 minutes, 3:30 to 5:00 a.m. So it's 4:00 in the morning. You don't have to explain. You're here. You're hungry. Nothing is alive. Except the Greyhound Depot. At least the lights are on. Go inside. Past the sleeping bodies to where bollards (this is still Sailortown, U.S.A.) section off an area facing the loading doors. It's the Snack Galley. And -- miracle! Somebody's there. He's cooking something! It's probably their famous (famous with late-late-nighters, anyway) breakfast sandwich: Bread stuffed with bacon, sausage or ham, egg, and cheese ($2.29). Go for the sausage. It feels like you get more to munch. Squirt in the mayo and ketchup packs, and order a nice large coffee ($1.24) to wake you up, sober you up, whatever. Go stand at the bollard counter, chew down, and -- probably -- get philosophizing about life in the weird, honest fellowship of the beyond-night owls. Everybody has a problem. Why should you be different? You come out, dawn's breaking. Belly's full. World feels different. It wants to give you another chance.