Those who are still awake at 3 a.m. and looking for an omelet will have a new place to gather when Goldroc II, a 24-hour diner, opens at 461 Queen St. later this month.

The 6,000-square-foot restaurant will serve breakfast at any time and will be an exact copy of the other Goldroc at 61 Kane St. in West Hartford. But unlike some other diners, it will serve alcohol when it opens in late March or early April.

"Our best dishes are the beef stew and the lasagna," said diner owner Guri "Goldy" Redzepi.

Goldroc II, will take the place of Bickfords Family Restaurant. That eatery, which had been open for 10 years, closed after its lease ran out and the building was sold, according to Larry Pszenny, Bickfords' vice president of finances. "It was an average restaurant for us," he said. There are no plans to open another Bickfords in Southington, he said.

The diner will face heavy competition with Denny's Restaurant at 621 Queen St. and The Pit Stop at 383 Queen St. within a mile. The Pit Stop is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, according to Sue Burhoe, a waitress.

Denny's, a 24-hour diner, has been at that location for about 20 years. The menu features $4.99 specials, including the meat lovers slam, the country slam, and a 24-hour breakfast menu. "We are confident with our prices and food and service quality that we will be very competitive," said Mel Pelletier, the general manager. There are eight Denny's franchises in the state, he said.

This will be the fourth diner that Redzepi has owned since emigrating to the United States from Struga, Macedonia, in 1978. The 51-year-old Albanian came to the United States at 27 to make a better life for himself, after his siblings had emigrated in 1969, his wife, Norine Redzepi said.

When Redzepi first emigrated to the United States he lived with his older half-brother Serjan "Serge" Alka in Waterbury and worked two jobs, in a factory in Waterbury and as a dishwasher at Venice Diner on Queen Street in Southington. Later he took a third job driving an ice cream truck in the summers and saved every penny, Norine Redzepi said. After washing dishes at Venice Diner for about three years, an opportunity opened for Redzepi. The owner wanted to sell his restaurant. Redzepi bought the diner with a friend of the family, Jimmy Rackatowski. After buying it, he renamed it the New Venice Diner. In 1990, he opened a bigger diner in Danbury, Venice II. When he bought Venice II, he split with his partner and sold New Venice Diner to him.

Another opportunity presented itself to Redzepi when he was bowling at the Colonial Plaza Bowling Alley in Waterbury and met his future wife through a mutual friend. The couple was married on Aug. 30, 1994.

Later the ever-working Redzepi saw that the Big Boy Restaurant had closed in West Hartford and the building was for rent. Thinking it would be a good location, he opened a new place, Goldroc Diner, in 1995. In 1997 he sold Venice II, to concentrate on his new establishment.

"He thought it was a prime location," Norine Redzepi said. The couple came up with the name by combining Norine's maiden name DeRocco and his nickname, Goldy.

Redzepi has had his nickname since he was a child. "It has always been his nickname," his wife said.

After all of his successes in America he still has the same work ethic that he started in 1978. "If he's home for eight hours, he's lucky," Norine Redzepi said Originally published online here

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