128 West 18th Street | 816-472-5533
Nothing about the name "Y.J.'s Snack Bar" sounds quite right. The initials feel odd rolling off the tongue. "Snack" suggests a lack of seriousness. "Bar" suggests that this little coffee cove serves booze, which it doesn't. Yet the place is perfect. There's some kind of shrine, with Mardi Gras beads, Kanye glasses and crumpled singles mounted on the wall, a syncretic messiah for whatever god of debauchery a hungover-bound reveler might pray to while taking weekend refuge here. See, Y.J.'s has, for some time, now stayed open continuously from 7:30 a.m. Thursday through midnight Sunday — an experiment in niche coddling that has become a trusted staple. Because we all need a place where rough is always all right and no one's judging.
