Photos by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Leslie and Tyrone Jarvis crack up in laughter while chatting with one of their customers, a Roanoke College student, just after 2 a.m. on a Saturday at their restaurant Yummy's in Salem.

Leslie Jarvis dips a Yummy's Griller, which has been renamed the Marooner in honor of her Roanoke College student customers, into french toast batter before rolling it in her signature Yummy's Crunchies.

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• See video of a typical late night (or early morning) at Yummy's in Salem

Yummy's

• Address: 304 East Main Street, Salem
• Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
• Call: (540) 389-7499
• About the menu: Breakfast is served all day and late night. Lunch includes sandwiches, wraps and daily specials.
• Smoking: No.

It's 11:30 on a Friday night, and the intersection of College Avenue and East Main Street in Salem smells like French toast.

Leslie and Tyrone Jarvis are about to open their new restaurant, Yummy's, for the second time today. The tiny grill, which is located within walking distance of Roanoke College and three bars, will serve waves of hungry students tonight.

Some will stop by just to joke around with Leslie and Ty, but most will genuinely need a little comfort food to soak up the booze before bed. Coffee fuels Leslie and Ty for the start of the late shift, but later, adrenaline will carry them through to 3 a.m.

"We're laboring just to stay up and labor," Ty says. "If this was just a humdrum kind of crowd, it would probably be boring and make the night go by slow."

Heat and smoke build inside the restaurant as Leslie, 34, grills bread and fries sausage in preparation for the night ahead.

Ty is afraid to open the door too early.

"Once you open it," he says, "it's no turning back."

Outside the front window painted with artificial snow, crowds of laughing students pass by on their way between Macado's or AllSports Cafe and Mac and Bob's. Tyrone flaps the door, temporarily, to clear out some of the smoke.

"Hey, Tyrone!" a kid shouts. "I'll see you later!"

"All right, man," Ty replies, laughing.

The signature sandwich

Behind the counter, Leslie's fuzzy pink clogs shuffle back and forth across her 10-by-4-foot kitchen. She has 30 minutes until opening time at 12:30 a.m.

On a small square of counter space, she repeats a very important pattern: one piece of Texas toast, one scrambled egg, one slice of American cheese, bacon or sausage and another slice of bread.

The sandwich is then dipped in French toast batter, rolled in "Yummy crunchies" (which look suspiciously like cereal flakes) and grilled on a panini grill that holds four at once.

Leslie wraps the sandwiches in tin foil and stacks them inside her warming oven, where the cheese melts everything together.

This concoction is called the "Marooner," and it is the house specialty for $5. It was originally known as the "Yummy Griller," but Ty renamed it in honor of the Roanoke College Maroons.

Stockpiling dozens of Marooners, egg muffins and BLTs helps Leslie free up grill space for other orders, such as her French toast stuffed with blueberries, chocolate or pumpkin filling.

She accomplishes all of this cooking on her one panini grill.

"I need another grill," Leslie says. "It's on my wish list."

If the kitchen is Leslie's turf, the slightly larger front dining room is Ty's. He is the maitre d', the bouncer, the waiter, the cashier and the janitor.

Although there's a side room with additional seating, most customers perch on one of six stools in the front room to eat their late-night breakfast.

They ignore the 13-inch television and the industrial-sized pot of coffee on a baker's rack. Nobody will buy the coffee, Ty says; it's all for him and Leslie.

The walls in the front room are plastered with photographs of regular customers.

"That's Hunter, Becky, Shelly, Parker, Andy ... I can't remember this kid's name," Ty says, pointing at pictures. "That's Yvonne -- she's a local employee around here -- Mindy, Gleason, Alan ..."

"Travis, Cameron, Jenna," Leslie continues.

"We call this guy '21,' " Ty says, laughing and tapping one picture. "He came in here last week before Thanksgiving. He just had all the liquor they [the bars] had and he was so excited that he was 21.

"They are a riot," he adds.

Just before opening time, one of those regulars, 21-year-old Scott Graham, bursts through the door.

"Was the door unlocked?" Leslie says.

"Yeah," Scott says. "Was it supposed to be?"

"No. But you can come in," Leslie tells him.

Scott is with his fraternity brothers, Andy Gleason and Corey Wiggins, who say they've been doing "frat stuff" all night and are on their way to Mac 'n' Bob's.

Scott reminisces about some homemade pizza rolls Leslie made and talks about the first time he ate at Yummy's.

"I think I was a little inebriated," he says. "I was wearing a tuxedo."

Scott says he feels a kinship with Leslie and Ty because he's from suburban Westchester County in New York and the Jarvises used to live in Queens.

"In New York, there are lots of late-night spots," Scott says. "It reminds me of back home."

He promises to come back later for a Marooner.

'I love Yummy's'

On the wall beside the students' pictures, there's an old, framed business article from The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk.

In the picture, Ty stands ramrod straight beside a van, smiling and wearing a tie.

The picture was taken in Chesapeake, where the couple lived most recently. Ty, 35, still owns a small business there called Lemon Patrol, which inspects used cars for clients who are interested in buying them.

After 10 successful years, Ty wanted to open another Lemon Patrol in Roanoke. But when Leslie saw the Salem space for rent, she persuaded him to let her "tackle her dream."

The couple were high-school sweethearts and have two teenage sons. She speaks in a tiny, quiet voice while her husband's is deep and laced with amusement, as if he is always ready to break into laughter.

While Ty delights their customers with off-color jokes ("His humor is young," Leslie says), she feeds them and scolds them and scoots them out the door.

"Sometimes I say, 'Where's your coat? Why are you walking around here without your coat? When you get sick, what are you going to do?' " she says. "I feel like saying a lot more, but I just hold it in unless they ask."

At 1 a.m., Ben Lunt, Mike Morin and John Honchar come in for Marooners. Lunt and Morin are as sober as Honchar is tipsy.

"Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?" Lunt asks politely before ordering.

"Yeah, we sure did," Ty says.

"Are you Mr. Yummy?" Honchar shouts. "I love you, Mr. Yummy!"

Ty giggles.

"Mrs. Yummy? Mrs. Yummy?"

"Yes?" Leslie calls from the kitchen.

"I love you!" Honchar says, leaning heavily on the counter.

Ty giggles again.

"I love you more," Leslie says in a singsong tone.

"I love Yummy's on the weekend!" Honchar declares.

"This is your first time here," Morin reminds Honchar.

"That's because I usually pass out by 10."

A place to call their own

The rush starts at 1:45, just before the bars close.

Students cram into the restaurant in droves. One group is wearing baggy Roanoke College sweatshirts with the hoods up. A clique of girls staggers in, leaning on one other.

Two boys laugh and roughhouse, accidentally knocking the menu off the wall. Ty and Leslie catch it as it falls.

The students order in a clamor of shouts: "I'd like a griller with bacon, please!"

"I'll take a griller with sausage!"

"A bagel with cream cheese!"

"Can you make me a grilled cheese?"

Some students disappear into the side room, whispering and huddling over their food. One girl lights a cigarette, which Leslie smells. She snatches it away and throws it outside on the front sidewalk.

Juliet Leonard comes in, holding her high heels, and plunks down on a stool. During her barefoot sprint to Yummy's, she has somehow injured her big toe.

"Oh, my God! My foot!" she shrieks. "I need a first-aid kit! I don't know what happened!"

Ty hands her a wad of napkins, which she twists around her bleeding toe.

"They're so friendly," Leonard says, beaming, "and they really like Roanoke college students. I don't understand why Salem never had anything on Main Street before."

"That liked us," adds her friend, Liz Hudson.

"I know," Leonard agrees, "other places don't like us."

Watching the chaos with amusement from a corner stool is Sarah Babiarz, a Roanoke County courthouse employee who is addicted to Yummy's food. After a couple of cocktails at Mac 'n' Bob's, she's working on a jerk chicken sandwich and a bowl of cheese grits.

The late night hours, which make up 50 percent to 60 percent of Yummy's profits, are a "stroke of genius," Babiarz says.

"I hope this place goes great guns," she says.

'Good night'

Steuart Weisman and Tom McPeek are the last customers inside Yummy's.

At 3:15 a.m., Tom has finished two Marooners and is dozing, his head in his hand.

His nose twitches, then his mouth, but he is oblivious to Steuart's rambling.

"When I get back to my room, it's like, 'How good does this smell?' " Steuart slurs, holding out his half-eaten Marooner as if he is taunting a roommate.

"You can't have it! You can't have it! It's all mine!" he says.

Ty and Leslie laugh, but they are getting tired. Even Ty is almost laughed out.

Leslie gently shakes Tom and tells Steuart she's kicking them out. Tom jerks, knocking a salt shaker off the table.

It shatters on the floor and he begins to apologize.

"That's OK, it's OK," Leslie says.

"You want me to pick that up?" Steuart asks.

"No, I want you to take him home," Leslie replies, nudging the boys out the door. "Make sure he gets home. Watch him in the street and stuff."

"I will," Steuart promises.

"Good night. Bye, guys," she says, closing the door and locking it.

She draws the mini blinds closed while Ty sweeps up salt and broken glass.

"OK," she says. "I love them, but I have to come back in the morning. They'll still be asleep, snug in their beds."

By the time they finish cleaning, Ty and Leslie might get home by 4 a.m.

Leslie will open the restaurant again at 8 a.m. -- for breakfast.