It is 1:57 a.m. on a Monday and Katy Pappas is serving, of all things, coffee.

The junior education major has worked at The Junction Eating Place, 816 W. Lincoln Highway, for eight months – all late-night shifts.

Tonight the diner’s clientele looks like a hodgepodge of stereotypes.

There is an overzealous student in the corner diligently brushing up on Emanuel Kant, a table of guys capping off an evening of bar-hopping with affectionate references to the “drunktion,” a group of senior citizens clad in bowling shirts, and a couple on a first date.

A bit up the road at Spring Garden Restaurant, 1262 W. Lincoln Highway, there is a similar scene.

Servers rush back and forth between tables of Birkenstocks to Converse All-Stars, dreadlocks to mohawks, flannels and overalls to pinstripes.

The two eateries represent demographics better than a John Hughes movie. Yet, somehow, the crowd doesn’t seem as surreal as those ‘80s classics. Tonight it seems completely normal.

“It would be boring if we had all the same kind of groups,” said Jill Laskero, an NIU alumna and Junction employee. “People can come here if they are tired of seeing people that all look the same.”

Laskero, a Chicago native, may be onto something in a town often criticized for its lack of diversity. Tonight, like most nights for early-hour businesses, is routine. Legions of nocturnal patrons shuffle in and out with like-minded caffeine addicts. Orders come and go without any regard for the time of day, as pounding coffee and chain smoking at 2 a.m. has become almost ritualistic for the diners and their guests.

“It’s a matter of routine,” Pappas said. “I couldn’t work the day shift. Getting up that early would be horrible.”

Being up early seems like an odd concern for someone who tonight won’t get out of work until nearly three in the morning. On some nights, the Junction’s staff stays as late as 4:30 a.m.

Spring Garden, the 24-hour diner, has a different situation. By serving around-the-clock, the rudimentary task of closing down a restaurant each night is avoided, but the restaurants are also forced to constantly prepare for odd rushes.

These two restaurants are not unlike thousands across the country. Yet, locally, they are unique. The venues offer a late-night atmosphere different than fast food drive-thrus and pizza delivery services. With last year’s closing of Around The Clock, it appears to be an ever-dwindling atmosphere.

After all, only people with a certain disposition can tolerate making cherry Dr. Pepper’s or specialty ice cream sundaes at this hour of the morning. But as faces become more familiar, the unique orders seem less like a task and more like a friend enabling another’s bizarre quirk. This is why it’s common to hear staffers referring to customers on a first-name basis and competitive joking about which waitresses are the favorites of the reoccurring visitors.

“The night girls are all very close. We are all basically in the same spot in life and understand where we all are coming from,” Pappas said. “Plus, we’re all very personable and people feel like they can talk to us.”

And talk people will.

“It sort of comes with the territory,” Laskero said. “Sometimes you see people around town and they’ll say things like ‘I’m cooking my own dinner tonight.’ Separating you from your job is tough.”

In fact, the customer/client line is blurred further considering the diner’s late-night staff, like the customers it couples, must be the breed of person who functions best significantly after sunset.

Yet the long hours can take a toll.

A recent study written in the Journal of the American Dietetics Association chronicled the connection between hunger hormones measured against sleep deprivation.

“From a health standpoint, kids that are up all night likely don’t eat well,” said Martha O’Gorman, instructor of family consumer nutrition sciences.

Yet, maybe at 2 a.m., nutrition concerns are secondary to environment. Or maybe, in the spirit of rebel non-conformists, these night owls just don’t care.

What is certain is that someone reciting sleep deprived ramblings about the Boston Red Sox, the best gas stations in town or Douglas Coupland has a forum and an audience ready to serve them more coffee.

That is, if they are up for it.