Logan after midnight
If you’re up at 2 a.m. and you’re tired of watching infomercials and playing Playstation, it’s time to pack your boxes.
Recently, while sitting awake around midnight on a Friday night, noticing the lack of entertainment I was surrounded with, I decided to take on the task of venturing into the metropolis to see all there was to do in Logan after midnight. I called up a Statesman photographer and, together, we decided to brave the darkness of Logan in order to accurately report what nightlife had to offer.
On our way we saw a cop flying down Main Street with lights blaring in the darkness. This was a sure sign of excitement ahead – we were sure.
Our first stop was obvious. Being one of two main bars in Logan, the White Owl was sure to deliver something that resembling “happening place” in our small town of Logan. We were the second car to pull up. Outside the door were one beat-up white Jeep and five bicycles.
“Five bikes is good for this time of year. Do you know how cold it is out there?” said Jim Zahmel, bartender at the White Owl. Including Zahmel, there was a total of 14 people in the White Owl when we arrived at 12:14 a.m. Zahmel said that was pretty much normal and they close at 1 a.m. because of city regulations.
“On Monday night, we had two people here at 20 to midnight and both of them were employees,” he said.
Not to be put out by our immediate lack of recreation, we drove over to Club NVO. The only club in Logan and famous for their Thursday night country dancing and Friday night bands, we were sure to find a crowd. We arrived at 12:20 a.m. and were the only car in the parking lot. The sign said they were open until 1 a.m., but apparently the special events didn’t last. The door was locked, but they left the strobes on, just to keep their hopes up, I guess.
Although we still had yet to find the nightlife in Logan, we saw yet another cop speed past us at 12:23 a.m., again, with the lights flashing. This kept our hopes up of finding some sort of action somewhere. If the cops were finding excitement, so could we.
We continued down Main Street and found people at an unexpected spot. Logan Lanes was the place to be at 12:32 a.m. Joe Jeppson, a senior in Spanish teaching, and a midnight bowler on a date, said bowling is one of the few events in Logan open late.
“If you go on a date, you have to go to dinner early before places close and then you usually end up back in some apartments playing video games or board games,” Jeppson said. “Basically anything you do you have to make up yourself.”
Jeppson, originally from Bountiful, said he has been in Logan for four years and still hasn’t found anything to do at night.
Bridgette Strickland, a sophomore in interior design and a fellow midnight bowler, said this is her second year in Logan, originally from Orem, and most of the time she spends after midnight is usually just hanging out in someone’s apartment.
In order to keep us awake during this night of downtown excitement, we decided to stop for a cup of diner’s coffee. Our pit stop, Village Inn, turned out to be a gold mine of midnight excitement. We arrived and quickly realized that people hang out at Village Inn because, quite frankly, nothing else is open. Heidi Metcalf, a sophomore in nutrition who moved here from Chicago four years ago and works at Village Inn, and said they usually stay pretty busy until they close at 2 a.m.
“There’s nothing to do – except eat,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf said she likes living in Logan, with the exception of the lack of after-hours entertainment. She said he roommates have resulted to making up “Mormon drinking games” such as “Duno,” which she described as Uno with Mountain Dew.
“They just take shots of Mountain Dew every time they draw a card until they get sick and throw up,” Metcalf said.
With a slightly queasy feeling in our stomachs, we left the diner and didn’t make it out of the parking lot before we found more excitement.
A Subaru sped down old main hill with four heads sticking out of the windows screaming for no apparent reason.
We didn’t bother to ask any questions.
Another cop speeds down Main Street.
Knowing that Pita Pit is open late, we decided to stop by. The Pit only confirmed our previous stipulations.
“Logan is cute and all, [but I’m moving] for a better nightlife,” said Brad Sorensen, a senior in political science who works nights at Pita Pit.
Sorensen said they actually get pretty busy at night because people who are too drunk to drive will call in to satisfy their late-night cravings.
The busiest place in town, with two deliveries each hour, is Pita Pit. The moral of the story? If you’re not hungry, there’s nothing to do. So stay home and order in.
Last of all, we felt obligated to visit Beto’s, known for late-night meals with Tums on the side. Of course, it was packed. Nayely Garfias, employee of Beto’s, said it is usually busy, especially in the midnight rush between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.
Between the tacos and breakfast burritos, nine of the midnight Beto’s customers decided midnight in Logan is a great time to build a human pyramid in the street. And people say there’s nothing to do. This group of kids definitely proved that theory wrong. Human pyramids in the middle of the road at 2:15 a.m. are definitely something.
By 2:45 a.m., both bars were closed, NVO was still padlocked, Village Inn was just finishing up the dishes, Pita Pit was on their last delivery and the three people out were still at Beto’s.
While college students in Miami are getting ready to head out, students in Logan are at home playing Duno watching reruns of friends and have learned to stop hoping for a better answer to the question: “So what do you want to do tonight?”
-etippetts@cc.usu.edu