Before the coffee is poured, before the first plate hits the table, before the first booth fills up with regulars who do not need a menu, the 19th Street Diner is already doing what it has done for 40 years: showing up for Glenwood Springs.

Long before it became Rick and Tonya Wernsmann’s restaurant, it belonged to Joe “Swanee” Schwanabeck and his wife, K.G. Schwanabeck, who opened the diner in 1986. When the Wernsmanns took over nearly two decades ago, they stepped into a place that already knew what it was, and they did not try to turn it into something else.

Tonya Wernsmann had started working there in 1994, spending 12 years with the original owners. Rick Wernsmann arrived in 2005 after 12 years selling furniture in the area. The couple bought the restaurant in 2007, stepping into a business that already had a loyal local following and a clear identity.

Rick knew better than to fight that.

“The one thing that the diner had was the locals and your typical diner menu, and that’s just not something that you want to change,” he said. “When you’ve got the label ‘diner’ attached to your business, you pretty much just want your burgers and your sandwiches and your salads. (You’ve) got to have your bacon and eggs.”

That philosophy has kept the bones of the place intact. The comfort food stayed. The familiar feel stayed. The sense that a diner should be dependable above all else stayed, allowing the restaurant to evolve organically from there.

One of the biggest changes came after the Wernsmanns took over, when a smoker became available and they decided to bring it into the fold. It gave the diner another dimension without changing its core, adding house-smoked meats and specials that broadened the menu while still fitting the place.

“The smoker that sits out front of the restaurant became available to us, and we decided to buy the smoker,” Rick Wernsmann said.

News you can trust. Straight to your inbox.

Sign up for our daily newsletter: PostIndependent.com/newsletter

That decision led to ribs, pulled pork, Canadian bacon and rotating specials including smoked salmon Benedict and smoked prime rib for Father’s Day. For a time, it also helped open the door to catering. But as the economy shifted, and later as the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing shortages changed the restaurant industry, that side of the business became harder to sustain.

“We’re not catering anymore, but the smoker is still an important part of our menu,” Wernsmann said.

Restaurants do not make it 40 years on name recognition alone — they last because they keep doing the basics well, and because people know they can count on them. Wernsmann believes that is what has carried the 19th Street Diner through everything from the recession to the Grand Avenue bridge project to the pandemic.

“Our consistency and our customer service are what I consider second to none,” he said.

That may be the clearest explanation for how a restaurant outside the city’s downtown core became a fixture. It earned trust close to home first, and the rest followed.

At the 19th Street Diner, that trust appears to extend beyond the customers. Wernsmann said many of his employees have stayed for years, with full-time staff averaging seven to eight years and some kitchen workers with 20 to 25 years under their belts.

Restaurants are known for turnover. The diner, he suggested, has tried to build something steadier.

“I try and treat them right. I try and treat them fair,” he said. “It’s a respect thing.”

He said that starts with example.

“I will never ask them to do something that I’m not afraid to do myself,” he said. “I’ve been in crawl space cleaning, I’ve been on the roof fixing.”

In that way, the diner’s success is less like a formula and more like a loop: good food brings people in, good service brings them back, steady customers help employees stay and longtime employees help keep the place feeling like itself.

This year, the diner plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a summer full of milestones. Wernsmann said the restaurant is working with vendors on weekly promotions that could include free coffee and tea days, drink specials and other giveaways. A larger celebration is planned for Labor Day weekend, even though the diner’s actual birthday falls on Oct. 26.

“We figured we would celebrate with the locals, but also the tourists that come to town throughout the summer,” he said, “We’re just getting a head start on the birthday celebration.”

As the diner marks 40 years, Wernsmann said the approach that got it there has not changed.

“You don’t change things that aren’t broken,” he said. “You don’t fix things that aren’t broken, and you make sure that you’re putting the same thing on the plate every time somebody orders it.”