Bite by day, After Bite by night: These twinned Columbia restaurants serve different needs

As Columbia makes its revolution around the sun, at least two worlds emerge. Both grow hungry.

Those who feel most alive 9-to-5 crave sustenance to propel them through daylight hours. As their day winds down, night-shift workers, night owls and wide-eyed students seek to satisfy their appetites.

A pair of Columbia restaurants that opened this fall — siblings, really — stay up to serve both worlds.

By day, Bite opens on Trimble Road, serving up brunch and lunch fare. The restaurant shuts down mid-afternoon, then returns as After Bite, offering elevated comfort food through the wee hours.

One roof, two restaurants

In the case of Bite and After Bite, a need for dynamic grab-and-go menus became the mother of invention.

Leanne Geiss, co-owner of Eclipse Catering and Events, talked with collaborators about bringing a high-quality, high-convenience restaurant under the company's umbrella. Their conversations yielded two desires: a wider offering of sandwiches during the day and something beyond what's become late-night normal.

Working in the event industry, Geiss knows what it's like to clock out after midnight and wish for a finer, more filling meal. Inching toward After Bite, she and her partners wanted to "offer what Columbia is best known for — which is really great food that’s different" at a time when few restaurants stay open, she said.

The twinned concepts were born; Geiss co-owns Bite with Josiah Williams, and the pair operate After Bite with Craig Hindelang.

Both restaurants serve their food to-go for the sake of efficiency; customers can order online or come to the window and scan a QR code, which takes them to the same menu.

There is some degree of convergence between crowds but, a couple months in, restaurant staffers see distinct customer bases forming. Hospital employees, first responders and other late-shift workers have been among the regulars at After Bite, Geiss said.

Take a Bite

Highlights of the Bite menu include the Crispy Hen Sandwich, which features a battered chicken breast on a brioche bun; and the Tenderloin Sandwich, delivering a grilled beef tenderloin on a hoagie.

The latter goes beyond options like a smothered Philly or thinly-sliced roast beef, Geiss said, to make you "feel like you’re eating a steak."

The meat is flavorful enough that the sandwich doesn't require sauce, she added.

Bite also serves up a burger, wraps, salads and more.

A late meal at After Bite

With After Bite, the proprietors sought a distinct sort of fusion, knowing these late-night meals might be dinner for some customers, breakfast for others.

Geiss identified the Piggy Piggy Piggy and the Ultimate Grilled Cheese as standouts. The former stacks sausage, bacon, pulled pork and bacon jam on a biscuit. The latter features three kinds of cheese, two eggs and two pieces of bacon on wheat "crusted with butter parmesan," according to the menu.

Other distinct offerings include the Cinnamon Roll Burrito.

"Everybody loves a cinnamon roll, but it’s not the easiest thing to eat," Geiss said.

After Bite remedies the issue by placing a cinnamon roll inside a tortilla, adding cream cheese sauce and a banana rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Here, the cinnamon roll fulfills its highest calling, becoming a meal, Geiss said.

The Beef and Mac Sandwich unites macaroni and cheese, roast beef and a smoky chimichurri. Diners forever seeking "the perfect bite" just might find what they're looking for here.

"Every bite is the perfect bite ... you’re getting all the different flavors all at once," Geiss said.

Awesome sauce

Across both restaurant concepts, flavorful sauces and condiments receive their due.

Bite offers ranch; yum-yum sauce; onion jam; a berry barbecue sauce; chipotle sauce; and jalapeno jam.

After Bite's menu makes room for sriracha honey aoli, honey habanero sauce and the house smoky chimichurri.

As someone who often orders based on mood, Geiss wants customers to feel they can personalize their sandwich with any of these sauces rather than be resigned to just one way of eating a given dish. This is take-and-go and it's also take-and-make-it-your-own, she said.

Bite is open at 2900 Trimble Road, Suite 105, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; After Bite lights up the night from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday-Saturday. Learn more about both, and order online, at https://www.bitecomo.com/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Bite and After Bite satisfy Columbia's hunger noon and night