Writer Anna Merlan chose 24-hour diners for this week's installment, because "24-hour diners have a special magic to them, the kind of bizarre dreamlike state that settles over a place when the lights never go out and the griddle never goes cold," Merlan writes.
She then dives deep into Yelp reviews, but not without a disclaimer first:
We've found that grim Yelp reviews of diners fall into three categories: bad food, bad service, and The Inexplicable, the kinds of weird things that can only happen at a place that never closes. To protect the names of the innocent and not-so-innocent alike, we've redacted the names of the businesses, as well as the identities of the Yelpers who wrote the reviews. We realize you can probably find out all of that information by employing five seconds of Google magic.
Here's what she found:
Jezebel/Yelp
A person...was stabbed! At this diner! And they're considering going back! That's not the end, of course. Grim Yelp reviews about 24-hour diners provided a wealth of entertainment.
There was this review:
Jezebel/Yelp
And this:
Jezebel/Yelp
Merlan has also done Grim Yelp Reviews for sex clubs and motels. You can read more about her findings on 24-hour diners here.