If you walk into Tastee Diner at 3 a.m., it wouldn’t be unusual to see your physics lab partner, the girls tennis team or the boy who sits behind you in math class.  Since opening in 1935, the Tastee Diner has been a teen hotspot and Bethesda icon.

It has celebrity status — not just for its signature milkshakes, but also because it’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

From the worn, laminated menus to the old school jukeboxes, Tastee’s classic diner ambiance and friendly employees have helped them acquire life-long customers.

On any given night, Tastee’s manager Frank Long can be seen chatting up a truck driver from West Virginia, corralling a group of unruly teens or putting an extra dollop of whipped cream on an ice cream sundae for an eager five-year-old.

“We have a really friendly atmosphere,” Long said. “Since we’ve been around for so long, we generations of families coming in here. Ninety percent of my customers are regulars.”

Teenagers are particularly drawn to the laid-back late-night hotspot. But junior Nicole Bleecker points out that teens can’t always take advantage of the late night hours.

“If you’re under 18, you can’t really use the 24-hour thing,” she said. “It’s illegal for you to be out and driving past midnight.”

Still, students like senior Leah Osnos bend the rules, frequenting Tastee’s at 2 or 3 a.m.

Tastee’s is often a go-to location for team bonding. The girls tennis team amended their annual tradition of TPing the houses of new girls on the team when principal Alan Goodwin banned the practice, said Osnos, who plays on the team.

“We just started going this year,” she said. “We were like, ‘What is the next best thing than TPing?’ So we steal the new girls out of their houses and go to Tastee’s around midnight.”

Chris Hotley has been a waiter for over two years and relishes the cherished night shift, when the most shenanigans take place.

“Anytime from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” he said. “Every weekend it’s something weird, there’s fights all the time. I’ve seen chicks trying to strip on the tables.”

Chris Puglisi (’80) says late-night runs to Tastee’s were some of his favorite high school memories.

“We used to go after parties on Fridays or before Redskin games on Sundays,” he said. “It’s kind of a Bethesda institution; it’s been around forever.”

Ultimately, the atmosphere that Tastee’s embodies is what keeps customers coming back time and time again, Hotley said.

“I have regulars who I know what they want to order before they come in,” Hotley said. “We’re like a family.”