Eat at Joe's extends its hours

The Eat at Joe's diner will expand its hours to test student demand for round-the-clock service. It's still not 24 hours, but they're getting closer. Eat at Joe's -- the 1950s-style diner that opened at 3925 Walnut Street last summer in response to student demand for an all-night food establishment -- will now stay open daily until 3 a.m, according to assistant manager Terrance Lighty. Until now, the restaurant has closed at 11 p.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends. Lighty said the new hours will begin today, while other changes, including a new menu and cheaper fare, will be phased in over the next several weeks. Eat at Joe's President and Chief Operating Officer Gino Naldini said the company would continue to consider keeping the diner open 24 hours, and could do so as soon as April. "It has to make sense for us to stay open 24 hours," Naldini said, adding that the new hours will test whether the restaurant would be successful staying open all night. "I'm listening to the students," he said. Naldini added that he plans to be aware of student needs in the future, saying that he has hired a marketing company to examine customer opinion. "They're going to help us be on top of the student needs on an ongoing basis," he said. The impetus for the diner came from a 1996 student body survey conducted by the Undergraduate Assembly which revealed an overwhelming desire for more late-night dining options on campus. Penn officials recruited Eat at Joe's to open on Walnut Street, and after a seven-month delay it served its first meal last July. But despite promises that the diner would be open all day and night, it was open for just 16 hours a day on weekdays and 18 hours on weekends when it premiered on campus this summer. Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official, said that the University had "asked [Eat at Joe's] to extend their hours," calling the upcoming changes a "joint decision." As part of the restaurant's lease agreement with Penn, the University can control the diner's hours of operation. "We'll see how things work" before making a final decision about 24-hour operation, Lussenhop said. Undergraduate Assembly Vice-Chairperson Michael Bassik said that he was "very pleased" to hear of the diner's new hours. "Only good can come from this," the College sophomore said. "When all the parties get closed down? students have nowhere to go. It would be ideal for Eat at Joe's to be a 24-hour facility." Keeping the six-month old establishment open until 3 a.m. was one of the measures called for to increase campus security in a November UA resolution following the assault of a female Penn student in the basement of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Naldini said he has pushed to extend the restaurant's hours since his installation as head of the company six weeks ago. In addition to the new operating hours, Naldini said, Eat at Joe's will be offering a "reading hour" with free coffee, a new menu and a PennCash payment system. The reading hours, which also start today, will allow students to sit in the diner and study from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day and drink coffee free of charge, Naldini said. The new menu, he said, will feature new items and "more affordable" dishes -- a change that came in response to patron complaints that menu prices were too high. Naldini said that the PennCash system will "hopefully" be operational within the next few weeks.