Fort Bragg, strange strange place. Why in spite of at least 50 hotels/motels? (Bell: home, college)

[beenhereandthere]

Is there no place to eat besides nasty fast food (McDonald's, Taco Bell) after 9p?

Thanks to a unexpected detour about 30 mikes from Ferndale, we wanted to get to Fort Bragg asap at 815p (Monday night) arriving in Fort Bragg around 1030p and we were just going to get dinner in Fort Bragg that late, even if it was a Chain place.

Well there was positively nothing. The Dennys that was advertised on the web 24 hours shut down at 1045p. Could be one of those lack of demand things but what about 24 hour workers, like firefighters, that need at least somewhat healthy food?

Wound up getting Sushi at one of the dirtiest Safeway markets I've ever seen.

I was just shocked. It isn't that small, 7600, and what do all those people do if all the hotels/motels are full after 9p? Maybe it's different during the summer but who knows?

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by beenhereandthere

Is there no place to eat besides nasty fast food (McDonald's, Taco Bell) after 9p?

Well, you can eat at nice, tasty, nutritious fast food restaurants.

[sourdough]

It is a small town. Feel lucky fastfood was available. Maybe include unforeseen delays in your next travel plans.

[beenhereandthere]

Originally Posted by sourdough

It is a small town. Feel lucky fastfood was available. Maybe include unforeseen delays in your next travel plans.

Seen smaller towns, like Crescent City, Madras, and Brookings, that don't have the same issue.
At least one place is open besides junk, in those towns.

[DawnW]

HAHA.

I have to tell you, we moved from LA to Charlotte, NC and within a few months of moving here, my son broke his collarbone outside playing soccer. We had to figure out where the hospital was, turned off the dinner we had started, and took him to the ER.

We were there until 10pm. We were all very hungry. As we were driving home, I was SHOCKED that nothing was open at all! Coming from LA, I just assumed something would be open.

And to be fair, things have changed a lot here now and there are many places open late, AND we weren't in the heart of the city, we were in the suburbs trying to find a place to eat.

We ended up going home and making sandwiches.

Things are just different outside of large cities. Be glad something was open at all.

[kgbnsf]

For realz? You really think that isolated towns of 7600 in population are going to have a plethora of dining options at 10:45 pm on a Monday night? Be lucky you got Safeway and fast-food.

You've been served with a reality check.

I like Fort Bragg and for a town of its size, they have some decent non-chain restaurants that we typically stop at. But, it's not the Bay Area and dining options are limited in the evening. As is the same for just about every isolated other town of that size.

[beenhereandthere]

Originally Posted by kgbnsf

For realz? You really think that isolated towns of 7600 in population are going to have a plethora of dining options at 10:45 pm on a Monday night? Be lucky you got Safeway and fast-food.

You've been served with a reality check.

I like Fort Bragg and for a town of its size, they have some decent non-chain restaurants that we typically stop at. But, it's not the Bay Area and dining options are limited in the evening. As is the same for just about every isolated other town of that size.

Exaggerate much?
I didn't say plethora, I just said was shocked that there weren't at least 2, yes, there's 7600 people, but seemingly at least 50-60 hotels/motels, what about something for those people?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by beenhereandthere

seemingly at least 50-60 hotels/motels, what about something for those people?

You mean like a cooler in the backseat with sandwich fixin's?
Don't leave home without it!

[NextStage]

It was 10:30pm, on a Monday and not the height of the tourist season. Most likely there have been a couple restaurants that tried later hours and they just didn't have the business to justify the staffing/operating cost.

Even though there are 50-60 hotels/motels, we don't know the occupancy rate. My guess is it's pretty low. The existence of hotels doesn't mean there are 1000 extra people in town who want to be fed at non-standard hours.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by beenhereandthere

Exaggerate much?
I didn't say plethora, I just said was shocked that there weren't at least 2, yes, there's 7600 people, but seemingly at least 50-60 hotels/motels, what about something for those people?

Exaggerate much like 50-60 hotels/motels? There's maybe a quarter of that, and most of them are Motel 6/Travel Lodge type deals. Mendocino/Fort Bragg is about as isolated as it gets in California. It's a huge county with less than 100,000 in it, 90% of which is around 101 and not on the coast. Arcata/Eureka/McKinleyville is comparatively a big city, major college town, and even that doesn't have much open after 10:00. Consider yourself lucky that there's a Denny's. Why not go there at 10:30 and I think you'll see why no other restaurant is open. Despite being the only thing within 50 miles that's open after 10:00 I doubt it does much of any business.