
Before Food Trucks, Americans Ate 'Night Lunch' from Beautiful Wagons - extarial
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/night-lunch-wagon
======
tsunamifury
This is a gold standard for what a platform should be. An individual sells a
product at a one-off price to a entrepreneur who then is able to make a living
off of it. There is no 30% take in perpetuity with regulations that slowly
chip away at margins. It's just one person selling another an honest
opportunity to make money. And as they scale, everyone in the consumption
chain benefits -- more sales, more businesses and more places to eat easily
for the end customer.

~~~
Eridrus
This is nonsense. By what criteria, besides "I like it" is "An individual
sells a product at a one-off price to a entrepreneur who then is able to make
a living off of it." the ideal form of business?

Adobe went from this model to SaaS, and their user growth has taken off,
because it turns out paying the full cost of the software in a front-loaded
fashion is really expensive.

I remember pirating visual studio when I was a child, because it cost
thousands of dollars that I could not afford, but these days it is free
because platform providers have realised that increasing developer share is
more important, and now finance their platform via the 30% take.

~~~
Digit-Al
You are very much mistaken in two ways.

Firstly, Visual Studio is not free. There is a free version that can only be
used by learners, hobbyists, and those creating free software. This is a cut-
down version from the commercial product, which offers more features and is
required if creating commercial software.

Secondly, Microsoft do not finance VS from a 30% take. As I said above, if you
want to develop commercial software you have to buy the commercial version.
Instead, the free version is a "hearts and minds" exercise. Get people used to
the free version when they are learning and when they are creating free
software. If they then want to create commercial software their first instinct
will be to plump for paying for the commercial version.

On the other hand, some of those replying to you are also mistaken as VS is
also available on subscription as well as standalone.

~~~
Eridrus
You can use the community product to make commercial software:
[https://www.quora.com/Can-startups-use-Microsoft-Visual-
Stud...](https://www.quora.com/Can-startups-use-Microsoft-Visual-Studio-
Community-for-development-of-commercial-applications)

The windows app store store does take a cut, though it seems to be reduced to
15%: [https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2018/05/07/a-new-
micr...](https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2018/05/07/a-new-microsoft-
store-revenue-share-is-coming/)

But even if it was just a hearts and minds exercise - why do you want hearts
and minds? As a strategic play to support other parts of your business, i.e.
Windows, even if it's not the Windows store.

In any case, it doesn't really matter the specifics are at MS now, you could
look at Android or iOS instead, where the dev tools are free and they are
definitely taking a 30% cut, and contrast that to a few decades ago where you
had to shell out a few thousand dollars if you wanted MS' dev tools at all. Or
take a look at Unity which has a subscription, which people are pretty happy
with.

------
kbrosnan
Worth checking out Haven Bros. in Providence, RI for an example of this still
in operation. Open from ~16:30 to ~27:00. It is driven in to down city every
evening.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haven_Brothers_Diner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haven_Brothers_Diner)

~~~
robotmlg
27:00?

~~~
AdamJacobMuller
A weird way of writing 3AM, I presume.

~~~
zdw
Fairly common in the UK and Asia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_clock#Times_after_24:0...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_clock#Times_after_24:00)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
"used occasionally in some special contexts such as broadcast TV" is not what
I'd call fairly common!

Never encountered it in half a century here, just military time "0 3 hundred"
as used on the shipping forecast, or simply 3am.

~~~
foobarbazetc
It’s extremely common in Japan. Literally everywhere.

Never seen it in the UK.

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quickthrower2
The use of "Night Lunch" as opposed to "Dinner" reminds me of the Randall
Munroe's "Thing Explainer."

~~~
minikites
"Dinner" might imply that the restaurant is open earlier?

~~~
wmf
I suspect in those days "dinner" implied a large meal while "lunch" is
something smaller and simpler, like the sandwiches mentioned in the article.

~~~
WorldMaker
My reading of it is also that many of these were used for what a lot of food
trucks are still used for (depending on the city of course): late night food
cravings (especially for the "afterparty" crowds). "Night Lunch" seems such a
decent descriptor for a "Midnight Snack", that I might adopt it for that
purpose.

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swingline-747
Hey zeitgeist, bring this back. There's barely anything open past 9 pm and
almost nothing with power-plugs. How is one supposed to work afterhours? At
home? (yeash)

There's a 24 hour cafe called Happy Donuts however it's anything but:
unheated, decrepit and must've been remodeled last in 1967.

~~~
princekolt
I smell an untapped business opportunity around you.

------
GBond
A version of these will likely come back. Autonomous vehicles tech will enable
on-demand, self-driving restaurants that park in front of your door.

------
crench
There’s one of these in Portsmouth, NH: Gilley’s.

~~~
QuinnWilton
And they also serve the best poutine I've had outside of Canada!

------
m3kw9
Looks amazing inside, I’m sure many has tried to replicate such decor

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cryptozeus
Really nice, good find ! Thanks for sharing.

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laserBro13Fcali
Was this submission inspired by yesterday's comment?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17972163](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17972163)

It sure feels like it. :)

------
wallace_f
What's more American than the entrepreneurial spirit which drives self-owned &
operated businesses like this? You have individuals who are self-responsible
for their product/service. It's neat to see the historical precedent.

Yet across America police are shutting down lemonaide stands. Even ones run by
kids. Food trucks and stalls are ticketed and confiscated in other cases.

Developers might be wise to speak up before you need an expensive license or
medallion or charter in order to sell apps or other tech services. It's no
less likely to happen, it just hasn't had time to yet.

~~~
RangerScience
I mean, to be snarky -

> What's more American than the entrepreneurial spirit which drives self-owned
> & operated businesses like this?

Clearly, lobbying the government to make your competitors illegal.

/snark

It's super cool that a guy with a basket turned into night lunch wagons turned
into diners.

It's also then pretty interesting that it took nearly a century for a
comeback. (Not that roach coaches haven't been a thing, but, food trucks took
it to another level).

Any indications for the intervening slump?

~~~
GW150914
I think the broadening palette and recovering from WWII and processed food had
a lot to do with it. You can only make so many things in a truck, but if
you’re able to draw from worldwide traditions it represents real variety.
Everything from ramen to falafel is doable and delicious in a car or truck,
but for a long time Americans weren’t interested in it. Americans seemed to be
satisfied with dirty water hot dogs, re-warmed pizza, and things like
pretzels. They also weren’t about to spend a serious wad of money for more
upscale versions.

Braden tastes, the foodie culture, the idea that even if you just want a hot
dog there are good ones to be had for a bit more money changed things, but it
took decades. You can chart a similar peak-trough-peak in bread in America
actually. It used to be nice stuff, then post-war it was mass produced, pre-
sliced crap for decades, and now... it’s back to some version of fresh. WWII
didn’t have quite the impact on the American palette that it did on the Brits,
but it did have an impact, as did modern “convenience” food.

~~~
bobthepanda
IMO the bigger issue was the massive, government-funded suburbanization of
America. Food trucks work best in a scenario where people need to walk to get
food, and driving to another food establishment; when everyone with money is
leaving the big city and spreading out over miles and miles, this business
model with small/no seating doesn't really work. This business model never
really died in, say, New York, where there has always been enough constant
foot traffic.

Postwar, people were also much more about modernity and convenience. The drive
thru is new, modern and sanitary, and you can drive right up; the food truck
is for the poors, is in the dirty city, and you need to find a parking space.
But today suburbs are culturally deadening and cities are the hip place to be.
We've had a flight back to the cities for a while; this coincides with more
food truck uptake.

