I never used to be a daytime guy. Breakfast meetings? Sunday brunches? Saturday drives? Let’s do lunches? Daytime, to me, was just six more hours to guzzle another gallon of espresso in.

But, living in the now means changing gears from a go-go vampire with a taste for only nocturnal enterprises to someone who finds fun, laughs, arts 'n' schmarts around the clock.

Daytime stuff must be as important as after-hours. Brunch is as crucial as the midnight snack. We gotta, à la Frank Sinatra, "live live live till we die," 24-7, Vegas-style. Here's a look at a weekend of Philly entertainment, night and day.

To ease you into the program, let's start with the evening. How's about happy hour? I get real happy at Cary Borish's Marathon at Commerce Square, feeling all tony and boozing it up before making my way to the dusky environment of Audrey Claire Taichman's Twenty Manning (261 S. 20th St.) for cheese and wine. Before you head into the evening and its sardines-packed crowds, summer brings to Bar Noir (112 S. 18th St.) a finer sense of outdoor swankiness. Or run around the corner to Magazine (2029 Walnut St.) and hang your head out the brownstone's window at passing cars while sipping a Cosmo.

I'm sorry but I can't -- at present -- recommend Old City happy hours, only because they're quickly getting more pedestrian than a sock hop at the Plymouth Meeting Mall.

On to Peter Breslow's Wine Brat soirees. Gone are the days when they offered helpful tips on how to select the right Merlot or sniff a quality Zinfindel. The only thing you'll be sniffing is the scent of a hookup, the allure of human musk mixed in the delicate aroma of your prey's perfume. Indeed Wine Brats is the mecca for hooking up. It expands this summer to include weird singles speed-dating events at Cibucán (2025 Sansom St.) and the Restaurant School: 60-second dates with revolving partners. Also, Wine Brats goes to 32¼ (16 S. Second St.) to party with local Penthouse photog Tony Ward exhibiting his naughty new collection Tableaux Vivants in July.

Floating from weekday to weekend and from Transit to all R5 parties to Silk City is Dave Pianka, with new electrothrash and the sounds of old-school. Take his "Click" monthly (last Fridays), which begins June 28 with a Fischerspooner record release: He's also planning live shows for Click, possibly Felix da Housecat (last friday in July) at Fluid (613 S. Fourth St.) and Miss Kitten & The Hacker.

Late-night Saturday, there's a stop at Le Pink Room at Glam (52 S. Second St.), some steam and triple malt Scotch to suck down at 700 Club (700 N. Second St.), some venison and wheat beer to brawl over at Standard Tap (Second and Poplar sts.), and then over to Tribecca (Richmond and Cumberland sts.). If it's Saturday, then Tommy Up is helping Bruce and Donna "Get Lei'd," more often than not. Not literally. Instead, there's a Hawaii Five-0 vibe all over the after-hours duplex. Kyle, Donato, Lorne and Christian James spin till 6, whether you're listening, dancing or cutting the trim off those skirts. (This double entendre-ing is too easy.)

Start your day kicking it Ninth Street style, first at Molly's Cafe and Bookstore (1010 S. Ninth St.), where you can get your learn on, your healing in (with several hundred tomes on holistic hoo-haa available) and your caffeine jag started long enough to get you to Grinds & Finds (620 S. Ninth St.). There you can shop some exquisite stained glass, dig the old-school hobby horses and any number of antique thingies, and get more espresso in you. That should carry you through so that you can hit Halo (1616 Locust St.), Phil Cohen and Molly Curson's new outdoor cafe.

Next, try Trust (13th and Sansom) for that late-afternoon cocktail, then make your way over to Club Nostradamus (17th and Green). If it's Sunday and it's 5 p.m., you're right on time for its afternoon jazz series, with the likes of "Father" John D'amico, "Big Jim" Dofton and Group IV. (If it's not too hot out, you can eat mussels and drink Framboise). By the time you're done there, you can mosey on over to "Gravy" Thomas and Brendan Olkus' raucous DJ jam at Alma de Cuba (1623 Walnut St.); a hotter, more haute spot I haven't witnessed on a summer Sunday since my church bingo went topless.

If after all this you're still restless, I suggest you either head back to 1616 Locust -- there's always some party going on there and, if not, surely you can get a haircut or play racquetball -- or head to Club Tru in Atlantic City. Practically a 24-hour venue, the glittering disco megaplex is home to everyone from casino staffers to Manhattanites out for a thrill ride. How do you get there? Who knows. My trips there have been so totally Mullholland Dr. But I knew I needed a map to get out so ... happy hunting.

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October 27, 2005
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