I’ve been to the King Chef Diner before.  A girlfriend and I walked into the distinguished Purple Castle on Costilla St last year and found ourselves surrounded.  Not by knights or guards, as you might expect from a castle.  No.  Every seat was occupied by an attractive, hardworking man having breakfast before going off to a construction job of some sort

Naturally, we stayed and waited for a seat

The owner of the diner found us a couple of spots near the window and, with the help of the polite and sociable diners at the counter passed us food.  The Purple Castle’s small dimensions made this all possible, much to our delight.

You can imagine my happy anticipation when another friend suggested breakfast in the same location this year.  I didn’t wear my amateur chicken farmer clothes that morning and I made extra sure my hair was free of pine shavings.  Unfortunately, we were a bit too early this time.  The diner doesn’t open until 8AM.

“What should we do?”, I asked my friend.

“Let’s go to the other one!”, she replied.

Yes!  The King Chef Diner has two locations, in what I would consider walking distance.  Nonetheless, since my friend had a schedule to keep, we drove over to the bigger location at Bijou and Nevada.  After a lengthy conversation with a stranger about his lovely rescue dog and his conversion to the kindness and utility of adopting from shelters, we headed into the diner.

“The portions are big and the green chili is hot,” our waitress quipped after introducing herself.

It’s true!  The portions are big!

I can’t speak for the chili, but I can speak for the dramatic pile of potatoes, onions, eggs and gravy I ordered.  It was good, but I barely made a dent into it.  If you go, make sure you’re hungry.

And if you’re heading to the Purple Castle location, be prepared for surprises.  You never know what you might find!