Imagine this conversation:
Husband: Honey, I had to spend a little money today getting a new computer system – about $2,000 in fact.
Wife: That’s nothing – I just bought a diner!
This is an abbreviated version of an actual conversation that took place in 2004 between Margie Childs and her husband after Margie purchased the Rocky Mountain Grill, a Sugar House diner located at 2305 South Highland Drive (801-484-2771).
Margie always loved to cook and always wanted a diner, but life intervened. Married young, she soon had three children. Raised in the San Diego area, Margie and her husband ultimately moved to Wyoming, where Margie suddenly found herself far from home and about to become a single mother following an imminent divorce.
Driving home to San Diego, she stopped in Salt Lake to visit her sister, whose husband was in the military, stationed at Fort Douglas. Margie’s sister encouraged her to stay in Salt Lake, and she did.
Without job skills or experience, Margie decided to obtain an education before seeking work. After completing a degree at the Salt Lake Community College, she took both a civil service test as well as a U.S. Postal Service worker test, scoring high on both.
First hired by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, six months later Margie received a better job offer from the U.S. Postal Service. She was soon transferred to the Sugar House branch, where she remained throughout her Postal Service career.
Meanwhile, Margie pursued her love of cooking, for her family of course, which expanded as she remarried, but also for co-workers who were often the lucky recipients of her many homemade treats including breakfast burritos made from her own chorizo recipe.
While working in Sugar House, Margie often had lunch at the Rocky Mountain Grill, which housed DeHaan’s Paint prior to becoming a diner in 1994. She watched as a succession of owners came and went, some making puzzling changes.
One day, for example, Margie walked in to discover there was no more counter dining; the bar stools were gone, ending the counter service, which, for many, including Margie, is one of the trademarks of diner dining. A subsequent owner cut a hole in the wall to open additional, more formal dining space to the south.
In Part II, readers will learn how Margie acquired the Rocky Mountain Grill and fulfilled her lifelong dream – owning a diner.
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