Biscuits smothered with sausage gravy. French dip with fries. Open-faced chili burger. Homemade cinnamon rolls. Peanut-butter milkshakes.
Colby Diner is a good place to go mid-January after you’ve given up on those New Year’s weight-loss resolutions and gone back to your old ways.
The diner at 2720 Colby Ave. opened about eight months ago, right smack dab next to another diner, Strawberry Patch Cafe, which has been there for years.
“A lot of people said, ‘That’s pretty gutsy,’” owner Mike Garton said. “That doesn’t bother me. Competition is good for you.”
Garton, 60, was born and bred in Everett. He previously operated 50th Street Burgers on Evergreen Way near 50th Street for three years.
He knows a lot of the people who come into the tiny downtown diner. It’s also a meeting place for an Everett car club, as evidenced by the dozens of classic car photos hanging on the wall that serve as the main art.
“I had a couple of old pickups, a Ford and a Chevy,” Garton said. “I sold them and bought this.”
Colby Diner has six retro diner chrome tables and 14 red vinyl chairs.
“I get a lot of call-ins,” Garton said, referring to take-out orders.
He spends most of his time in the narrow galley kitchen, frying bacon, flipping burgers, chopping, peeling. He’s like a one-man band. Diners can watch him in action.
He stayed in the kitchen the entire time I was there recently for lunch. A friendly woman took orders at the counter then delivered the finished product to the table.
I went with a co-worker on one of the rainiest days of the year. Torrents pounded on the sidewalk signboard advertising “Grilled Cheese &Tomato Soup, $6.”
A few others undeterred by the downpour were eating and a few more came in to pick up orders.
A senior couple sat at the next table. He got the grilled cheese and tomato soup. “I always get the chili,” said the wife.
I ordered the French dip with fries ($10). The mound of thinly sliced meat was piled high between a French roll, but it was rather bland, even with the dipping juice. It was also too much to eat at one sitting. I ate the other half the next day, cold and juiceless, and liked it much better.
My coworker had a deli sandwich on sourdough bread with turkey and fries ($8). “A typical everyday sandwich,” she said.
We both gave the fries a total thumbs-up. Garton uses fresh potatoes and a giant hand-operated potato peeler attached to the wall.
Still, I wanted to give the food another chance. So I went back a few days later for breakfast and got two sausage biscuits with gravy ($5). The gravy was creamy with hunks of sausage. The biscuits were soft and melted in my mouth. It was sinfully good.
This is not a place to go armed with fresh resolutions to stay fit.
There are a few healthy choices. But seriously, when a line in the menu reads “Fresh Fruit or Hashbrowns ($3.50),” which are you going to choose?
It’s a quiet place. My co-worker and I yakking made for most of the noise.
A copy of The Herald was on the counter for the taking. Music is low. Want something to look at? Look at the dozens of car photos on the wall. Or read The Herald.
“Everyplace you go, seems like everybody has a TV,” Garton said. “I had two TVs at my other place. I thought, ‘Let’s just go without.’?”
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Colby Diner
2720 Colby Ave., Everett; 425-252-7419; www.facebook.com/colbydiner.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week
Specials: Daily breakfast, soup and sandwich specials.
Alcohol: None.
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