Our Story

Billie's Cafe has been feeding Brighton, Colorado from the same corner of Bridge Street since 1976, when the building first opened its doors as a Country Kitchen — a classic American family restaurant built on hearty breakfasts and diner comfort food. Local want ads from those early years still turn up: cooks, waitresses, and dishwashers wanted at "1830 Bridge St." starting in December 1975, and by 1977 Country Kitchen was already a fixture of the neighborhood.

Sometime in the years that followed, the restaurant became Billie's. In 1996, Robert A. Massey — whose wife, Billie Jean, had spent her life working as a waitress before she passed away in 1990 — bought the building on Bridge Street. Family history holds that he renamed the restaurant in her memory, and the name stuck. By that same year, Billie's was already well-known enough around town that a visiting British composer, stopping in for breakfast, was inspired to write a piece of music about the place. Whatever you order here, you're eating at a diner with a song written about it.

Billie's stayed in the Massey family until Robert's passing in 1998. In 2007, Ling Thong Wong and Vinh Chau took over the restaurant, and for nearly twenty years they made Billie's a true Brighton institution — the kind of place with regulars who have their own booth and a coffee cup that's never quite empty.

Now, Billie's is opening its biggest chapter yet. Starting August 15, we're joining forces with another longtime Brighton favorite, The Grill On Main, to become Billie's Cafe And Grill. The Grill is moving into our home at 1830 E Bridge St, and from that day on, it's one roof, one name, and one menu.

If you're a Billie's regular, nothing about your cafe is changing — same name, same spot, same menu you already know. You're just gaining a grill next door. If you're coming over from The Grill On Main, you're not losing your spot either — you're getting a better home, with the same food, the same team, and the same way you're used to ordering. Where a dish lived on both menus, we kept it at the grill's price and recipe, because we built this to make sure nobody feels like they lost something.

Same address. New hours: Monday–Saturday 7am–9pm, Sunday 7am–4pm. Fifty years after the first cook clocked in on this corner, the coffee's still hot, the chicken-fried steak is still on the menu, and the name over the door still means what it always has — it's just got a little more room at the table now.

We're glad to have you here.