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King's Chef Diner (recollections, ca. 1995)
I learned a lot of my cooking secrets from Floyd "Sam" Johnson, who was always nice enough to call me "Chef". I used to sit in the seat closest to his grill, watch him like a a hawk, and ask him questions. He was almost always generous with advice, tips, explanations. [The only recipe he wouldn't share was his secret sauce for his Cordon Bleu sandwich--Chicken, Ham, Swiss Cheese & ??.] See his recipes and mine here.
Sam opened the King's Chef in 1957, across the street from its current location at 110 E. Costilla. He moved the diner to its current location in about 1960. It was always open six days a week, 7AM to 5PM from 1957 until 1995, when he started shutting down on Saturdays. (He was getting tired!!) This run made it the most successful restaurant in Colorado Springs. He sold the diner in 1996, along with his fabulous recipes (which I had previously stolen!!) and retired. Currently, he has a group of old customers which joins him over in
Old Colorado City for breakfast once a week. He also cooks breakfast for the Knights of Columbus in Security
every six weeks -- just down the street from his house.
 Here's a picture of Sam in front of his grill. He was basically on his feet from 6:30 AM until he closed at 5. He knew what his regulars wanted, and never took more than 5 minutes to serve anything. Everything was fresh. He cut steaks from a
rib eye he kept in the fridge -- confided in me that he went thru five rib eyes a day -- probably close to two hundred steaks! He sold most of them smothered in green chili. Sam had a long handled
French fry cutter and he would put potatoes in (scrubbed but not peeled), cut them and fry them right
now -- no frozen French fries at Sam's!. He pounded his own chicken-fried and minute steaks, and pork cutlets, breaded them in home-made bread crumbs, and fried them as I watched in rapt admiration. He could keep six orders going on the grill at once. He served breakfast at any time of the day, and scoffed at cooks who said "the grill is closed for breakfast". He might apologize for a little hamburger grease on the eggs but he never turned down a request for breakfast.
The Diner, according to Sam, was a standard 10-stool diner, available after WWII as a prefab building with stools, counters, cupboards, etc. The unique trim is metal, and is patterned after the Disneyland Castle. Many people in the Springs still refer to it as "the castle." Because of its unique appearance, it appeared in many collections of write-ups about diners.
The diner was located a block from the El Paso County Court House (& Jail) and was always full of lawyers grabbing a quick lunch.
 The (only) menu on the door of the milk cooler shows Rib Eye Steak, $3.45, Chicken Fried Steak, $2.85. (Some specials were higher, but it was hard to spend over $5.) The black-hatted regular with his back to the wall is
my friend "Banjo Bill" Harloff, well-known in folk circles thruout the west. The
fellow in the vest is John Stone, noted street-musician and map expert.
This is the view from the cash register. The diner was usually crowded with people waiting to sit down or take out food. As you can see, there's not a lot of room -- one of the reasons I'm so comfortable in our little house in Belize!!
Back to the King's Chef.
After five years in Belize, I came back to COS and (of course) visited the old
diner. Read about my (mis-) adventure here.
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