Nocturnal
Tendencies
Continued
by Tim Bugansky
photos by Michele Lenni
Steve
Steve Buckus is the quintessential Country Kitchen late-night regular.
"I'm a night owl and occasionally an insomniac," he says.
Steve comes to the restaurant so often that they've asked him to take a job as a cook. They ask him frequently, but he always declines. It would ruin the feel of the place for him. The 20-year-old man from Stow has been coming to Country Kitchen since he was 15.
Steve usually visits Country Kitchen twice a day, seven days a week. Tonight he's here with his fiancée Lisa Mosely, two friends and his his.
Steve says he only sleeps three or four hours a night. And at least once a week he stays at Country Kitchen all night, going in the morning straight to the University of Akron, where he is a second-year freshman majoring in chemical engineering.
His eyes, narrow slits, are barely visible beneath the brim of his beret. His temple bears a permanent crease from his perpetual sleepless squinting. Steve looks beyond tired, but his pink, goateed face is fixed in a slight, closed-mouth grin.
He fishes a Camel cigarette from one of the two packs stacked in front of him. He lights it,then pours another cup of coffee with the same practiced precision he's demonstrated all night. He fills the cup, plops the creamer out with a few well-timed finger taps, shakes and pours from a sugar packet, stirs and sips.
Steve smokes his cigarette like he sips coffee – slowly and methodically, with the nonchalance that comes with years of practice.
The waitress passes by to see if they want any food. The others place their orders, but Steve declines.
"I think I'll just stick to my regular diet of cigarettes and coffee," he says.