Homemade hash browns, made fresh each morning, fresh eggs, fluffy dollar sized pancakes and thick bacon slices. What do all those suggest? In Spokane they say
Knight's Diner, loud and clear, every morning.
I wish I could say that we had tried their
breakfast, but we have a different story to tell about the people at this diner:
Knowing nothing about this diner, we happened to arrive just before 2 PM, as they were closing. We asked if we could just step inside and take a couple of pix. Initially the response was "Sure, but we're closing right away." Then suddenly they asked if we were hungry. To our affirmative reply they responded, "Well, come on in and sit down. Would you like a couple of burgers?"
The upshot is that they fired up the grill, made us some burgers, stayed open almost until 3, answering our touristy questions the whole while. Very engaging, Vicky,
the boss, eventually told us more about Knight's Diner, and Spokane in general, than we had learned in the previous two days. Really nice people running this diner. Well worth a visit!
Knight's is one of three old railway dining cars in Spokane which have been turned into diners. All three serve superb breakfasts in beautifully restored cars, making for a very enjoyable dining experience. Though they close before dinner time, Knight's does a big lunch trade, in addition to breakfast.
I'll let them tell you a bit about their
dining car:
The Railcar that houses Knight’s Diner was built in 1906 by Barney and Smith Co and saw service on the Northern Pacific Railroad as car number 988. The vestibules on either end of the car were designed by the Pullman Car Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and built under license to them. During World War II the car, which had been retired to the Northern Pacific Yards in Yardley (Spokane Valley), was pressed into service as an indoctrination classroom for the war effort. John (Jack) Knight, formerly the head waiter at the Davenport Hotel (and the only waiter allowed to serve Louis Davenport his evening meal), renovated the car for use as a diner in 1949. The Railroad car that houses Knight’s Diner has retained a high degree of integrity since construction in 1906, both while on the rails and its later reuse as a diner. It is significant as both a well-preserved turn of the twentieth century all-wood Railroad Passenger Car and as an
outstanding example of an American roadside diner.