This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
(Written by Joe Bieker)
Nearly every day a cadre of locals dubbed “regulars” amble into Janie’s, located at 431
Main St., to enjoy a favorite meal among a staff and other customers many consider family. This has repeated itself for almost twenty years running under the name of Janie’s.
Janie’s is a long term stalwart of the local breakfast and lunch scene in Longmont, being
under the same ownership since Janie, a former head waitress at Aunt Alice’s in Longmont for ten years, decided to strike out on her own. Before she purchased the diner, it had been
known as Vickie’s, and before that, Leo’s, all at the same address.
Danielle Catmull, granddaughter of Janie and current “caretaker/manager/waitress”, states she “is very lucky to have a job I honestly love, because all of these customers are like my family, I know their names and kid’s names, they know mine; and we generally know what they even will be ordering.” Danielle admits to the long hours along with raising a family, but feels “it’s worth pursuing my passion, which when I was in cosmetics I never thought would be here.”
Danielle has a staff with low turn over as they genuinely enjoy working with each other and the atmosphere. She has been there full time for eleven years, and there hasn’t been much change from the idea of straight forward breakfast and lunch American food of high quality served in a friendly environment. She noted a couple items they might be known for, that being the breakfast burrito and bread pudding. But, she thinks the high consistency day in and out is what is very attractive to her clientele. A change that has been happening over the years, is a trend towards a slightly healthier menu offerings and ingredients.
The hours that they are open begin at 5 a.m., and it closes at 2 p.m., so there is a time separation that allows for early workers to retirees on their own schedule. With the changes in Longmont’s population and demographic mix, she has also noticed a decline in farmers and an increase in “hipsters”, but there is still a wide variety of folks who are attracted to the atmosphere of an old time classic diner. Of the rough estimate of “regulars”, who come maybe at least three times a week, she estimates it at about 40
people.
Two of those regulars were Robert (Bob) Roberts and his wife Barbara, who is a local retired teacher, and were sitting at a table in the back by the kitchen that had a sign over it that read “You are lucky to sit at Jim Gillen’s table, since 1957”. Jim still makes it to Janie’s about once a week or when he can, and is also retired teacher from the Longmont area. Bob reiterated the main reason he likes coming is “the family atmosphere and all of the different things going on here. Like right now at the front of the restaurant there are nine people who are part of the MG owner’s club enjoying a meal, and earlier there was a woman’s group here for breakfast.” He is especially fond of the hot sauces available and claimed “if you want anything special, they’ll do their best to accommodate you.”
The Roberts were being served by Mary Ann, who has been there for the twenty years that Bob and Barbara have been routinely coming in for meals. Janie’s experiences very low staff turnover, another reason for the staff to get to know the customers better, as they tend to stick around awhile.
Part of the caring for each other happened last fall, when a customer had a blood clot
emergency and another retired public servant performed CPR until help arrived to help savethe person’s life.
Down the aisle a bit was another regular who came to the fold about 2 years ago. Wally Grant, raised in Longmont since the age of one and currently an attorney was enjoying a bacon skillet. He echoed “that part of the attraction is the down home atmosphere and the staff.” Of course, just as he said that one of the staff walked by and kidded him. Wally has seen lots of change in Longmont over the years, and appreciates that it is more diverse and integrated now. He was also the first Chairman of the Downtown DDA, and he is happy to see that some of the items they envisioned and hoped for in the 1980’s, such as the alleyways being more amenable to pedestrians, have started to become reality. All of this has helped attract more people to downtown Longmont and Janie’s.
So it appears there is a lot going on at Janie’s, but one constant is a classic American diner
atmosphere filled with people who treat you like family, and that is a rarity these days.
