While the rest of Boston is busy earning its reputation as the City that Always Sleeps overnight, patrons at the South Street Diner on Kneeland Street get their bill when they're served their food. It helps owner Sol Sidell turn over the seats in the small eatery and prevents dine-and-dashing.

Around 4:11 a.m. on March 19, two women sat down and got their food and bill. But they pointed to some guy sitting in the diner and said he'd be picking up the tab. When the man begged to differ - and said he didn't know the two women - Sidell took away their food, wished them good night and ordered them out, he told the Boston Licensing Board at a hearing on the incident this morning.

Outside, Sidell and police say, the women began arguing with the two bouncers the diner employs in the early morning, in part to screen customers for table service. The argument turned physical and one of the women bit the male bouncer several times on the hand, then picked up one of the metal stanchions South Street uses to keep people in a line and hit the bouncer in the head with it - just as a worker inside was calling police.

The two got into a car and drove off, but not before a worker got their license plate number. A BPD officer testified another officer caught up with one of the woman at Beth Israel Hospital, but was unable to get her side of the story because she was under sedation and restrained - in part to protect hospital workers, such as the ER nurse she allegedly spat at.

The board decides Thursday whether to take any action on the incident.