Nick Pirraglia and his son Daniel took ownership of King’s Restaurant on Route 25 in April 2012, but it is only recently that he has finished the first phase of sprucing up the iconic breakfast and lunch place, said Mr Pirraglia.

“We are still maintaining the rustic look while upgrading,” he said. Behind the scene upgrades are not visible to customers, but are essential to keeping the restaurant up to date and safe.

“We have installed new floors in the main dining room, put in new cabinets, and resurfaced the counters,” Mr Pirraglia said. The building, several decades old, has been reinsulated, and all of the interior walls have been cleaned and resurfaced.

Mr Pirraglia brings many years of food experience to King’s. “I grew up in the Bronx making pizzas,” he said, and for the past 30 years has owned Nick’s Corner Market in Armonk, N.Y., now under the management of his son, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

“King’s is such a Newtown tradition, it’s hard to change the menu,” Mr Pirraglia said, although he has added a homemade macaroni and cheese special. Longtime customers will find the same extensive selection of breakfast and lunch items, and new customers will be impressed by the “King”-sized meals, from buttermilk pancakes to Belgian waffles to any of the dozen omelets or King’s Breakfast Specials. Soups, burgers, deli sandwiches, wraps, salads, and even New York-style knishes and a kiddie menu round out the lunch menu. He has returned to the quality products featured in King’s early years, he said, despite a slightly higher overhead.

“We use thick-sliced applewood smoked bacon, we have a new delicious breakfast sausage, and are using first-cut corned beef for our Reubens and corned beef hash,” Mr Pirraglia said. Customers appreciate those small changes that improve the dining experience, he said.

King’s now offers breakfast or lunch items on an all-day basis, from 8 am to 3 pm, seven days of the week. The only exceptions are items from the fryer, which are not available first thing in the morning.

Free Wi-Fi is offered to customers who care to linger, Monday through Friday.

Customers can look forward to constant improvements and upgrades at the restaurant, said Mr Pirraglia. Maybe the less obvious improvements have gone unnoticed so far, but one thing that he is certain of is the friendly customer service. “People are loving the positive atmosphere here, and we like to see the old customers coming back,” he said, while providing a warm welcome to newcomers.

King’s Restaurant, at 265 South Main Street, Newtown, is open seven days of the week, from 8 am to 3 pm. Takeout is available by calling 203-426-6881 - or just visit kingsbl.com.