The Durango Diner

In Durango, Colorado, there are two types of people–those who go to the Durango Diner (or the Diner for short) and those who go to Oscar’s Diner. I am a Diner Girl. My friend Amanda is a Diner girl who lives out at Mesa Verde and still makes the drive into Durango on the weekend for her Diner fix. My roommate, Becca, was an Oscar’s girl–but she was still a good roommate and I had more pull in the brunch department, so she had to go to the Diner with me.

When my parents would come to Durango, they were Diner fans. They would get up and go to the diner while I was still sleeping, without me. After watching my dad drink boatloads of coffee, the waitresses realized where I got my morning habit for 5 or 6 refills. The morning I dropped my truck off at the radiator repair man and then had to wait for it to be late enough to go to work–I went to the Diner and told my mechanic to “call me at the Diner.”

When I drove into the sunrise and left Durango, the Diner was my last meal. Overhearing me talk about leaving, Gary gave me a jar of green chile and a diner mug and told me, “Don’t forget where you came from.” He also offered to trade green chile for jokes over email. When I went back to Durango last Snowdown, the Diner was the first place I went. Sorry Sinbergs, you can’t compete with a Chorizo Cure, a bottomless cup of joe, and the Denver Post.

Now, the Diner Family is fullfilling my christmas wish–They have agreed to send Green Chile to LONDON!!!! Now, I have wanted and needed green chile in Chicago, but it never got so desperate. Because I was at least in the same country and it always seemed more immediate, more likely that I might get some. But in London, all I want is a meal at a Diner. There isn’t a Diner in my neighborhood. Sure there is Ed’s Easy Diner, but it is actually a hamburger joint and there are no hashbrowns and no bottomless cups, and no green chile.

If I could get hashbrowns, I would be okay. If I could get filtered coffee, I would be okay. Sausage, cheese, eggs, I would be more than fine. But without the green chile on top of it, it is just breakfast. But with the green chile, it is a life affirming meal and a true way to start your morning.

The way to my heart is obviously through the green chile in my stomach. It is also the way to severe heartburn, but I don’t care. I’ll eat it in the morning and then go walk around London and sneer at all the people who started their day with toast and baked beans, because I had green chile.