Tom’s Diner

Tom’s is finally closed, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, seeing as it has been about to close for as long as I can remember. The first time I ate there was right before I officially moved to Denver, when I was still heavily involved in the Occupy movement and someone insisted that we eat at Tom’s to talk over strategy. Like all Occupy strategy meetings, it was mostly me listening to someone else’s conspiracies and complaints. Unlike the other meetings, I got to do this one with coffee and soggy French toast.

That doesn’t really make it sound appetizing, but I think the special thing about Tom’s was that it was never really appetizing. I can say that now that it’s closed. I wouldn’t want to say that while it was still running because then people might not think that it wasn’t worth going, and it was always worth going. It was almost an obligation, one that seemed more pressing because of the constant threat that it would one day no longer be there for you.

Of course, we all went to other places and had other meals, but Tom’s was there if the mood at Pete’s was wrong, or if you didn’t want to go home but couldn’t think of another place to be. I went there a lot during Occupy and a little afterward. I went there if I wanted breakfast without having to make excuses and once on New Year’s Eve because every other place was too crowded. Tom’s was crowded too, but it felt just as it should be. It was there if you wanted a subpar breakfast in the middle of the day or if you needed coffee that was just coffee. I planned my move to Denver inside of Tom’s and went there for the sake of nostalgia even as it was still standing.

Tom’s is still standing, but it’s just a shell now. The place that we were told would be empty for so long finally emptied. The stress of the pandemic was too much for an institution that was already on its way out to bear and the last time I walked by Tom’s I just saw an abandoned building with a fence around it.

I can’t think of anything else to go there. What is more perfect for that stretch of Colfax than a breakfast place that never closes? What is more needed in that part of town than a twenty-four hour diner where you can always get coffee and keep warm? A chain restaurant won’t do. It has to be something uniquely Denver.

The last time I went to Tom’s was a little under a year before the pandemic. I lived in Louisville but was in Denver to see a Jenny Lewis show at the Ogden. Before the show a friend and I wanted to get something to eat, and my only stipulation was that I wanted a fountain coke. It just felt like the thing I needed at the time. We couldn’t think of anything else and went to Tom’s, only to discover that they carried Pepsi.

It felt very quintessentially Tom’s–to be a place that almost had what you wanted, but not quite. It’s weird, but even on that day we weren’t sure that it would be open. We walked down the street without knowing whether or not we would be able to get our breakfast in the middle of the day and then when we got there, it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. I supposed one of the special things about Tom’s was that you never knew if it was going to be your last time eating there. On this particular day, I didn’t know that this would be my last time going to the Ogden for over two years. That the world was going to change over entirely. You think you have enough time to do everything you could ever imagine and then the world changes and it turns out that the only time you had was the time right in front of you.

I ate at Tom’s too much and not enough. I treated it like the second-best place I could ever be. I continuously noticed its flaws and all the ways that it could be better. Despite all this, I have a very clear idea of Tom’s as a place that is Denver to me. It is the place where I felt most like someone who lives in Denver and the empty building that can probably only ever hold a diner is a reminder of the way the city was and what I always wanted it to be.