This will be my first WF experience so don't quite know the lay of the land. What is the food/drink situation like? Any good resturaunts close by and any that stay open past 11pm?
Just walking a few blocks up and down the one-way street in front of the Convention Center...
...Towards the attached parking garage (with traffic): Wendys, Burger King, Subway.
...Opposite direction (against traffic), King Gyros, Taco Bell, Arbys, McDonalds
Walking away from the Convention Center:
Thirsty Camel (bar / food). Powers Hamburgers. A small 1950s-era diner (forget the name; will edit it in later). Firehouse Café - in an old fire station. Starbucks. The former bus transfer district is katty-corner from the hotel, there are still a number of 'hole-in-the-wall' snack shoppes there - one is a Polish-themed bar. The Library hosts a munchie shop (menu items picked to be not-messy).
A bunch of hotels were built in a cluster around the Convention Center; they each have some sort of restaurant in them (probably expensive unless you are renting a room with them).
You will be opposite the baseball field, which has its own set of small shoppes - which may or may not be open in the depth of winter - built along the street-facing sides.
If something goes REALLY wrong for you / your friends, St. Joe Hospital has a cafeteria in the basement.
If you have access to a car, your options open up considerably; Downtown is not exactly full of well-marked restaurants, but the shopping malls a mile or two away to the west DO have lots of eateries.
Now that I think about it, since I live in Ft. Wayne, I navigate to most of these places by memory not by name or by map.
