Adams Morgan Acquires Late-Night Jones for Falafel

"They're a very good place," said Chishti, who also hails from Pakistan and grew up eating something similar to falafel. "They have good food."

Still, most ravenous revelers seem to go for the jumbo slice.

"It's quick, easy and delicious," said Mike Seium, among the customers striding out of Pizza Mart one recent night cradling mozzarella-laden wedges that measured 16 inches long and 11 inches wide.

Nan Hee, 33, said the jumbo slice is simply a matter of tradition.

"It's not the best [pizza], but it's an institution," she said. "You go to Adams Morgan to the bar, you get a huge slice."

Bennett said he's grateful to the slice shops for starting the "nocturnal feeding frenzy."

But with that frenzy has come inebriated customers.

"We get our share of drunks," he said. But "frankly, people who come for falafel are usually a different kind of drunk than the pizza drunks. There's no fights here."

James Norton, an accountant who resides in the neighborhood, said that despite the occasional "drunk idiots," the falafel shop is looking like a keeper in a late-night landscape known for more familiar flavors.

"I think generally in D.C., people don't know what falafel is," said Norton, who worked briefly at the eatery as a security guard. "I didn't think they were going to make it. Who eats falafel?"