Steak 'n Shake

Many years ago, I was a big fan of 3am Steak 'n Shake outings.  During the summer of my freshman year of college, my friends and I would all pile into my beater Civic and head over to Steak and Shake in the small wee hours so we could drink cup after cup of coffee, chain-smoke, and talk about whatever navel-gazing nonsense we had extrapolated from the philosophy 101 courses we had taken in the spring.  Occasionally someone would order a Frisco Melt or get a milk shake, and I'm certain we were all shitty tippers considering how long we stuck around for on each visit.  

I don't frequent Steak 'n Shake much anymore, but as long as there are 24-hour diners, there will be groups of navel-gazing college students drinking way too much coffee and trying to suss out Ginsberg and Burroughs.  I went back recently and everything was just as I left it (except for the nasty smoking habit, which the restaurant and I have finally managed to drop).  I can't say the food is terribly good and the coffee is decent at best, but there's something comfortable about Steak 'n Shake.  You can always roll up in the small hours, sit down in a booth with your friends, and slip into your own little fluorescent-lit world for a while, no matter what location you pick.

It's open 24 hours a day, the food is pretty good, and the service is amazing.

But why's the service amazing? Because there's usually no one in it. My bet is this place shuts down in the not so distant future, which will be too bad. Where else would people in Carmel go for late night fatty food?