After-Hours Feasting on the Cheap

The late-is-great theme only begins with a menu that's available from 10pm to 12:30am, Wednesday through Saturday, which is when (and only when) you'll find the SDLT burger (with smoked onions, blue cheese and spicy aioli) or the gooey "pate melt" on brioche for $12. However, more deals abound at this seasonal French brasserie every week, from Island Creek oysters freshly shucked for a dollar on Wednesdays at 10pm (until the last shell gets slurped) and swell food specials and prizes during Thursday trivia nights at 10pm. Viva!

If you can navigate through the dense crowd of arm-flailing carousal, congratulations--you've arrived at one of Toro's monthly blow-out industry parties (the public is warmly invited, too) held on the first Thursday of the month, from 10pm to 1am. With party themes ranging from Bollywood to dive bar (tagline: "stay classy") to Bart Simpson's 21st birthday, each shindig at the haute tapas joint gets the night rolling with complimentary passed pintxos, drink specials ($4 Miller High Life '40s, for example) and--a persistent deal at the restaurant at all hours--$1 PBR tallboys.

How does one improve on an earnest homemade pizza and ice cream joint located smack-dab in the middle of the South End--with a resplendent patio and killer hot fudge sauce, no less? Five-dollar baby back ribs served past midnight aren't a bad way to start. Picco unfurls a belly-taming midnight showcase from 11pm to 1am on Friday and Saturday nights; the full pizza menu is available, plus late-only treats like the aforementioned ribs, Gruyere cheese puffs, steamed mussels and chicken quesadillas doused with black beans and chili. Copious amounts of beer and quirky wine ensure the night stays fervently young.

As the clock tolls 10pm, the raw bar floodgates open, whereby each we-thought-we-were-safe oyster goes for a buck a shuck until 12:30am. A night's cornucopia can include Wellfleet, Duxbury, Conway Cups and the obscenely bright and sweet-fleshed Wianno. Despite this oceanic spree-for-all, the full kitchen closes at 10pm, so consider that you're left with only bivalves, booze and desserts at your disposal. We don't see the problem ... do you?

Like everything else it prepares, the timetable at this Southern-style nook is adorably precise. As a chalkboard at the bar attests, the late menu goes live from 10:01pm to 12:30am daily, Tuesday to Sunday. The bar's a handsome perch for fancy-with-a-drawl bar snacks, from $3 boiled Virginia peanuts to a lustily assembled pulled pork sandwich or a cornmeal-crusted catfish po' boy for about a sawbuck. Homey desserts, from buttermilk cake to a homemade moon pie, should charm the pants off your bourbon-slugging self.