Thank Google for the best diner food to land in Boulder County in a long time.
Paul Roberts, and his wife, Pam, were weary of their life in Mill Valley, Calif. They were eager to try recipes honed over a decade at the Sunnyside Cafe in a whole new place.
Intrigued by an article in Outside magazine that pointed them toward Colorado Springs, the family heeded the advice of a customer who suggested Boulder instead.
A quick Web search served up pictures of the funky Prospect New Town neighborhood, on Longmont’s southern fringe, and a road trip commenced. Prospect was their second stop.
“We pulled in on the day after Christmas, and it was beautiful,” Roberts says. “My wife was crying. My daughter was crying. We were saying ‘This is it! This is it!’ ”
It is we who should be crying tears of joy for the serendipity that brought Roberts and his Two Dog Diner to town. Seriously.
It’s a sleek little spot, its decor and menu informed by classic diner style but updated to reflect the chic neighborhood growing up around it.
“It’s very simple, a place people are comfortable being in,” Roberts says.
Most things served at Two Dog Diner are made from scratch. “The only freezer I have is an ice-cream freezer,” Roberts says. “Everything we serve is fresh.”
That goes for the interpretations, as well as the ingredients. The BLT is made modern with a slather of basil aioli. The club sandwich, updated with grilled prawns on toasted sourdough. Hand-rolled biscuits and homemade pies beckon from cute cake stands. Fries are cut fresh, and they are still sizzling when they hit the table.
Blue-plate specials rotate from buttermilk fried chicken on Mondays to grilled fish tacos on Fridays.
Breakfast, served all day, still comes with the side of love that Roberts dished out during his northern-California days.
“If I was going to cook oatmeal for people, I was going to make it the best they’d ever had.”
Dana Coffield: 303-954-1954 or dcoffield@
Two Dog Diner
Contemporary diner, breakfast served all day | 645 Tenacity Drive, Prospect New Town, Longmont, 303-772-2364. . Sunday 8 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Monday 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Tuesday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
