DENNY'S 3520 AUBURN BOULEVARD

This morning in the pouring rain, I hit the road to get some breakfast. It was around 7:00AM as I pulled into the parking lot of Denny's restaurant located at the corner of Auburn Blvd & Watt Ave.

Getting out of my car I had my first encounter of the day. It was a lady in her late 40's standing on the grassy knoll behind the Shell Gas Station. She was wearing a green shirt & white pants. Despite the rain, she had no coat. She approached me & began to speak. Gazing at me she slurred, "I'm hungry & I'm trying to put together a little cash for some food".

I knew something like this was going to happen. The corner of Auburn Blvd & Watt Ave. is known by many as "Hype Heaven" or "The Golden Triangle". It's kind of a no man's land for the dregs of society. You have the drunks, tweaks, the homeless & the occasional down on her luck street walker.

Reaching into my pocket, I glanced at the ground & spotted a penny. Handing the lady a dollar, I said "look there's a penny right there". She didn't pick up the penny. She never thanked me for the dollar either. She just walked away looking at the dollar very closely. It was like I was handing her a fake dollar bill. I may be a lot of things lady, but I'm not a master counterfeiter.

My guess is she was trying to put together enough cash to buy her first can of "Steel Reserve" Malt Liquor for the day.

With my good deed accomplished, I walked inside Denny's for some breakfast.

I was greeted by the busboy & told to take a seat anywhere. The crowd was small maybe eight or nine people in the place.

After a couple of minutes my server Rachel greeted me & filled my coffee.

Looking over the menu I decided on the French Toast Grand Slam. This consisted of 2 pieces of french toast, two eggs & four sausage links.

The one thing I noticed was that Denny's had freshened up the place. The counter was gone & the whole place seemed to have nicer booths & carpet.

As I waited for my order, I glanced outside at the rain. The lady in the green shirt was still standing on the grassy knoll, staring at the dollar I gave her.

Just then a homeless person pushing a shopping cart stopped in front of the restaurant. He walked up to the front door, bent down & picked up a half smoked cigarette. Breaking out his trusty lighter he fired up his first smoke of the day.

Twenty minutes had passed, my coffee was empty & I had no food. My server Rachel was near the kitchen area, engaged in a conversation with two of her co workers. The conversation was in Spanish. Something about a Muchacha. It seemed to go on forever. Hey, I just wanted my food. I was starving to death.

Finally she noticed that I had no coffee & gave me a refill.

At the thirty minute mark my order arrived. Geez! Thirty minutes to make French Toast? Fry two eggs? C'mon... You can do so much better than that!

Maybe they flew the Denny's Corporate Jet to France to pick up the French Toast.

I began cutting up my french toast & then it happened. Rachel the server put the bill on my table. After waiting a half hour for my meal, the least she could have done was let me have a few bites of my meal before tossing the bill on me.

In all honesty, it was a halfway decent meal. The coffee was good, the eggs were good, the french toast was good, but the breakfast sausage looked a little funny. It was this off gray color. Just odd looking.

As I ate my breakfast, rock legend Rod Stewart was playing on the radio. Honestly, it was just a bizarre morning. I was happy I had a place to sleep at night. I was thankful that I had a rain jacket & a car to drive me away from Hype Heaven.

The total for my meal with coffee was $11.18.

After giving the homeless person a buck & a tip for Rachel the final total was in the neighborhood of $15.00.

I give Denny's 1 out of 4 stars.

****