Digging up the best late-night eats on the Monterey Peninsula.

Every time visitors come to town, I present the facts: The Monterey Peninsula closes early. Guests from big cities have a hard time believing this, and despite my warnings, we routinely rush to get to a restaurant before it closes – sometimes as early as 8pm. Often we arrive after closing, which leaves us disheartened, hungry and tired, returning home to conjure something iffy out of the refrigerator.

The tendency of local restaurants to close before many journalists get off work also poses an obstacle to civic engagement: I’ve heard members of the public talk about how they leave city council meetings before it’s their turn to speak because they won’t be able to pick up dinner on the way home.

In many places, 10pm isn’t late for dinner, but around here it takes some diligent scouting to get anything beyond fast food or pub fare. (Though sometimes pub fare will do – especially at spots like downtown Monterey’s Crown and Anchor and New Monterey’s Bulldog Pub).

La Tortuga in Seaside (899-8429, open past 10pm daily) serves its full menu of hearty Mexican fare late, including my favorite after-hours meal, a giant steaming bowl of posole ($7.16/small; $8.64/large), with a generous heap of grated cabbage to stir in and lime slices to brighten the already citrusy broth. This place is often full at 10pm (when the kitchen closes), with customers lingering over beers or hot chocolate, watching news or soccer on the flat-screen TV.

C restaurant + bar in the Clement Hotel on Cannery Row (375-4800) also serves dinner until 10pm daily. On my last visit my companions and I started with cocktails outside by the fire pits, watching otters crack mussels as the sun set. By the time we were seated around 9, we were the only table in the restaurant, though the bar is still bustling. Lingering past 10, there was no feeling of urgency and we went for multiple courses, starting with the rich clam chowder ($14) then sharing the day boat scallops ($42) with a sunchoke puree I couldn’t get enough of – it enjoyed the texture of mashed potatoes but tasted sweeter, earthier and more complex.

Two more go-tos: Montrio Bistro in Monterey (648-8880) and Terry’s Lounge in the Cypress Inn in Carmel (620-7460), which bills itself as “Hollywood by the Sea.” Terry’s serves dinner until 10pm, and the bar stays open until 11pm on weeknights and midnight Friday and Saturday mixing classic cocktails. There’s frequently a mix of locals and international tourists here just starting dinner around 10pm. The excellent burger ($18) and a Caesar salad ($9) are enough food to share between two.

Montrio generally closes at 10, but has experimented with summer hours until 11. The menu here is well-suited to dining late – there are small – and medium-sized plates that mean you don’t have to go big on portions. The BLT salad ($13.50) with Chef Tony Baker’s famous bacon, heirloom tomatoes, and flavorful gem lettuce is filling, and doesn’t skimp on the tangy beer-blue cheese dressing. The whole white anchovies ($6) are served on crispy potato chips, delivering satisfying crunch.

The bar is regularly busy until 10, mixing edgy cocktails (like the bitter Mexican mojito, $12, featuring Peloton mezcal and ancho reyes chile, and the Hell Hath No Fury, $12, with bourbon, cardamom bitters, and honey foam). But as the restaurant clears out and it’s just a few locals left at the bar, it starts to feel like a neighborhood gathering place: I’ve met CSU Monterey Bay faculty who want to talk about the impact of poverty on student achievement, and an Irish immigrant who wants to talk about the poetry of Robinson Jeffers.

As it gets later, available fare skews toward faster food. I try to prioritize locally owned establishments, like Papa Chevo’s, which keeps its Seaside and Marina restaurants open until midnight Monday-Thursday; Seaside stays open until 1 am Friday-Saturday, and Marina until 2am Friday-Saturday. The Cannery Row location goes until 10pm Monday-Wednesday and 11pm Thursday-Sunday.

In a recent student survey on quality of life at CSU Monterey Bay, the number-one write-in request was for more free parking on campus. The second-place write-in: getting a Papa Chevo’s on campus.

Manager Jaime Diaz, whose parents own Chevo’s, reports there’s regularly a line at the Marina spot up until closing time. “I think people get tired of going to Jack in the Box,” Diaz says. “They like to support locally owned.”

Indeed, most late-night eateries are big chains. Both of In-N-Out’s Monterey County locations (in Salinas and Seaside), for instance, serve until 1am Sunday-Thursday and until 1:30am on weekends.

Good news on the locally-owned late-night dining front came last month when Nacho Bizness (601-2424) opened on Lighthouse in New Monterey, serving well-adorned plates of nachos ($8) topped with cheese, meat (pollo, carne asada or al pastor) and housemade extras like pico de gallo, habanero relish and guacamole 7pm-3am Thursday-Saturday (or until they run out of product).

Co-owner Esteban Montez is familiar with the response already. “The best compliment we get is the look of, ‘I didn’t expect to have well-prepared food like this late at night.’”

Mark C. Anderson contributed to this report.