Why We like Durango ~ TheRestaurants

Continuing in the series of why we love living in Durango, I thought I would discuss some of the restaurants that we have here. I've heard it said many times, although I really don't know if it's true, that Durango has more restaurants per capita than San Francisco. I do know this: It's hard to get a bad meal in this town. My commentary may be a little different than the average Joe's because my degree is in hotel restaurant management and I used to own five restaurants in my "previous life". The main reason we have so many restaurants is that our town services about 800,000 tourists a year and those tourists are staying at hotels and motels and they need to eat out.

We have everything from gourmet restaurants like Seasons, The Cosmopolitan and the Mahogany Grille located in the Strater hotel to the good old-fashioned breakfast counter diners like the Durango Diner and Oscars. We have lots of choices in between with steakhouses like The Ore House, Sweeney’s Grubstake and Randy's (the last two really specialize in prime rib). We have several Chinese restaurants; my favorite of which is the May Palace... great food but don't go there for the decor. We have a Himalayan restaurant, an Egyptian restaurant, and a Cyprus Café as well. Obviously, being located in Southwest Colorado, we have numerous Mexican type restaurants. My two favorites there, would be Francisco's which not only has the best poblano soup you will ever eat but they have a full American menu which is not only reasonably priced but very well prepared. http://www.franciscosdurango.com/ The other Mexican restaurant that I enjoy is Tequilas. Very very fast service, the best salsa in town and you may want to order a side dish of mushrooms. I would swear that they are cooked in pure butter… what a delight. http://www.tequilasmexres.net/ We have several sushi restaurants which aren't my cup of tea but I'm told by others that they are quite good. For smokehouse or barbecued food we have the award-winning Serious Texas Barbecue which was ranked in the top 20 smokehouse restaurants by Sunset Magazine just a couple of years ago. They're pulled pork is out of sight and the smoked turkey is delish. They have a cherry chipotle sauce to put on top and you won't want to miss that. http://www.serioustexasbbq.com/

Seasons Rotisserie cooks their stakes and chicken and fish over an open wood fired grill. It is an open kitchen design that you can view, and they even offer barstool seating right in front of the chef where you can enjoy your dinner. They offer a fabulous wine selection, an excellent assortment of appetizers and their crème brûlée for dessert is to die for. At least one person at your table needs to order the center cut sirloin so that you can enjoy a real good taste of the wood fired grill. They offer outside dining in the summer season. http://www.seasonsofdurango.com/

The Cosmopolitan has only been in town about three years, having started in Telluride. Their signature dishes a deep-fried shrimp and calamari with an orange and red pepper sauce. If I were to make a list of the 10 best things I've ever eaten, this would be on the list for sure. Cosmo also has a great wine list and many creative ways of preparing traditional dishes in nontraditional ways. Cosmo offers rooftop outdoor dining during the summer season. http://www.cosmodurango.com/

The Mahogany Grille is located in the Strater hotel, our 130-year-old Victorian grande dame. If you could eat architecture and stunning interior decor, you would be full before you ever sat down at your table. Meticulously restored and rebuilt, there are numerous solid walnut antiques and period pieces that truly add to the dining experience. That said, the food is exceptional from the various breads that are part of the dinner, to the elk tenderloin served on their menu. http://www.mahoganygrille.com/

About a mile south of the ski area is a restaurant called The Sows Ear. Well known for their steaks and great mountain views right from the dining room, this may be the only place I've ever eaten where you can cut your steak with the dull side of the fork. Wine list was not sophisticated at all, but you will get "drunk" on the views of the mountains. http://www.sowseardurango.com/
Other very nice dinner houses include Ken & Sues (famous for their molten chocolate lava desert), The Red Snapper (seafood, of course and the best salad bar in town), The Palace (chicken and dumplings like your grandma used to make), Mutu’s Italian Kitchen, and The Swing Restaurant located in the clubhouse at Dalton Ranch Golf Course. Only two restaurants overlook the river: the main dining room in the Doubletree Hotel and the South restaurant of the Serious Texas Barbecue group.

On a more casual basis, Olde Tymers is a great spot for a burger and green chili. Nina’s Taqueria has the best habanero salsa in town. Lady Falconburgh's serves 92 different kinds of beer (I don't really know how many, but more than anybody in town I am sure) and has really good sandwiches. Carvers, which is both a brewery and a restaurant, is pretty famous for their breakfasts as well. Steamworks brewing, up on 2nd Ave. allows the kids to color on the floor and throw the peanut shells wherever they want. Steamworks has a real large menu and he is definitely a local's favorite Friday afternoon. Gazpacho is a little hard to find, but they specialize in southwestern food and a variety of margaritas. Mama's boy restaurant serves Italian food and is located directly across from the rec center. In that same general area Doughworks is only open for breakfast and lunch and makes their own homemade bagels. This is one of the spots were lots of skiers stop on the way up to the area and grab breakfast burritos, which I think are the best in town. The two chain restaurants we have would be Applebee's and Denny's.

We have a couple of places that will serve pizza by the slice or pizza with ribs or a pizza with chicken. Of course there are places that are more bar than restaurant where you can get pizza, sandwiches, chicken wings etc.

There's no way I can cover every single restaurant that Durango has to offer and these are just a few of the ones that I like the best. We are so fortunate living in Durango to have these great places to go out to eat. How many towns of 15,000 people do you know that have this many eateries? The restaurant business is very competitive and if they do a poor job they won't be in business for long in this town. One thing that many of the restaurants do every spring and every fall, which are considered our shoulder tourist seasons, is to offer 2-for-1’s for a week or two weeks. Many of the locals take advantage of that offering so during that time, the restaurants are generally quite busy.