Breakfast for Dinner

Eggs anytime; the best of the 24-hour diners

By Allyson Reedy

Special to Metromix

The 24-hour diner has a huge advantage when it comes to breakfast. It’s not like you’re showing up bright eyed and bushy tailed for an omelet at 10 a.m. Oh no, you only frequent these hangover havens after the bars close and you’re so drunk that you’ll admit to texting in votes for American Idol. In that state, you’d think a microwave Weight Watchers meal was the best thing ever.

So it’s not surprising that places like Denny’s and the Waffle House stay open 24 hours (and really it’s the diners eating between 6 a.m. and midnight that we should worry about). Let’s face it – you’re pretty easy to please when it comes to food in the middle of the night. Actually, you’re pretty easy to please when it comes to other things too, but that’s a whole other story. Here are some of the Denver area’s best 24-hour diners for when you want breakfast before you wake up.

Breakfast King
There are two kinds of restaurants in the world – those that embrace change, and those that don’t. The Breakfast King says “Screw you!” to the '80s, '90s and twenty-first century, and instead chooses to live in its own little '70s Mel’s Diner kind of world. For fans of orange vinyl booths, wood paneled walls and killer breakfasts served late night/early morning, this isn’t a bad thing. In spite of its rundown location on Santa Fe – located near an even more rundown building inhabited by a revolving door of strip clubs—the King has remained popular for 30+ years. Not bad for a place that resembles the Bundy house on Married with Children.  

Pete’s Kitchen
Pete’s is the Rolls Royce of 24-hour diners. Kind of like being the most talented of the Spears family, but no matter. This is the place to be at 2 a.m., and everyone knows it, as evidenced by the line out the door. Once you get past the jovial bouncer, order a breakfast burrito to absorb the alcohol swishing through your stomach. Get it smothered in green chile—they should bottle the stuff and sell it at Whole Foods for its hangover-curing properties. The clientele is so eclectic here it’s as if you were flipping through the MTV, Bravo and Spike channels, but with a loud-mouth frat boy to annoy you instead of commercials.

Great Scott’s Eatery
Sure, some of the waitresses look and talk like they just got released from prison yesterday, but it’s not like they’re packing heat. At least most of them aren’t. There’s a special kind of charm to a joint that offers senior and kids’ specials during the week but whose servers and managers have dirtier mouths on them than George Carlin. But who the hell goes to a diner at 4 a.m. for the service anyway? The breakfast is good, the price is right, and best of all—it’s open.  

Denver Diner
You say you’ll never come back – too greasy, too John Belushi circa 1980 – but you also said you’d never drink again back in ’06. And I’m pretty sure you weren’t sober when you were grinding on your best friend’s 18 year-old brother last month. Oh yeah, you’ll be back to Denver Diner. The crispy bacon, cheesy omelets and armed policeman working the register are just too enticing.  Much like grain alcohol. The only downsides are the blinding lights – did they not listen to Leonardo DiCaprio and switch from halogen to compact fluorescent bulbs? – and busy location at Colfax and Speer.