Stylish and Hungry 2022: Kings

This morning’s Stylish and Hungry segment takes me to a local Pittsburgh based establishment that’s fallen on hard times recently but still has a few locations that remain open.

Hartley King opened his first store in 1967 in North Versailles as Kings Country Shoppes. This name was later changed to Kings Family Restaurants to indicate the establishment was a restaurant rather than a store. By 1980 the number of restaurants had grown to 7, and 24 by 1990. Other locations included Monroeville, Plum, Upper St. Clair, and Delmont (where I got my first job in 2006 after college).

I stopped in for breakfast on this fine Friday morning at the Hempfield location just two minutes from home. I was seated as soon as I walked into the restaurant and had my order taken immediately. It wasn’t busy on this day but so far I got great service.

I ordered the Wake Up Breakfast, which was a popular item when I worked at the Delmont location 15 years ago (has it been that long). I had my choice of eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns and home fries, toast, and pancakes or French toast. My server was friendly and very professional.

Every part of the Wake Up was good and I cleaned my plate with no trouble. My server deserves a nice tip for her service and for taking good care of me. I hope this Kings will remain open for the foreseeable future. Just wish Hartley would kept the operation in the family when he sold it in 2010.

My experience this morning gets an A-. A+ for the service and the food, D for the way Kelly Capital has run this once great chain into the ground, but I’m generous and I’ll curve it higher.

Kings was my first real job after I graduated from Slippery Rock. I won’t get into too much detail but I want to keep it real. I wasn’t happy there.

Knowing what I know now, I would have appreciated the job way more than I did back in 2006 or I would have even continued with Eat’n Park. I was too concerned with trying to find a job in my field (even if I wasn’t going to be successful at it… like sales) so people wouldn’t think I went to college for nothing. I almost even considered going back to school to earn a pointless degree just to make up for how bad I thought my experience was at Slippery Rock.

But there was some good that came out of Kings as well. I built good relationships with my coworkers as well as the higher ups whenever they came in. I also was the Frownie at various community events like the company picnic at Kennywood and the Junior Golf Tournament at Nemacolin. I was proud of representing the company, but mad at myself for not being able to let the past go. The downturn in the economy late in 2008 meant I would have to look for a job elsewhere.

You can’t take back the past but you can learn from it. If I wasn’t so hung up on going back to school or looking for a job in my field back in 2007, my mind would have been more focused on succeeding with Kings (or even Eat’n Park). If I didn’t stress myself out on others’ negative opinions about the job, working at Kings would have been much more enjoyable. Same deal with WIS though I did tune those guys out much more in the later years.

I wish I could have learned to walk away. It would have saved me a lot of trouble, heartache, and emotion in the long run.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.