Durango isn’t the first place I’ve moved to sights (mostly) unseen. Other than Fort Lewis College, snowboarding and a cheapish cost of living relative to my other stops in Colorado, I came to town with an abundance of ignorance and an empty stomach.
Yet I’ve found showing up to a new place curious and hungry is the best way to get to know it, and after three months and a lot of meals, there’s a lot to like about Durango’s culinary scene.
Food and culture cannot be separated because eating is one of the few things that your phone can’t do for you. Sure, you can order delivery or takeout, but I prefer to wait until Dominos is absolutely necessary. Also, the lack of snow has been giving me early stage cabin fever, and the walls are closing in on me like Pete Hegseth dogging Nicolás Maduro, so any excuse to leave the house is welcome.
With that said, here are a few first impressions from eating my way through a small portion of Durango.
One of the first things I look for after moving to a new location is a local bar and grill, a place where you can get a burger and a beverage, and as much or as little social interaction as possible. I’ve found more than a few of those – shout out to college students for making sure they’re mandatory – featuring delicious, if not a little repetitive, menus.
Obviously, burgers, wings and fried food are staples of any respectable bar and grill. Carver Brewing’s smash burgers, J Bo’s Pizza and Rib Co.’s wings and Steamworks’ blue cheese curds are a few standouts. (One critique for any restaurant in town: If your green chili isn’t bordering on perfect, leave it off the menu. There are so many tasty local versions that even average ones are glaring.)
What’s been more surprising though are the local beers. The rest of Colorado seems to think that Ska Brewing’s Mexican Logger and Steamworks’ Colorado Kolsch are the only drinkable beers to come out of Durango, which is a real disservice to the rest of their catalogs. Ska’s Cold Pale Ale is as inexpensive as most domestics you find on shelves and twice as flavorful, and its other Mexican-style beer – a cold IPA – is a banger, too.
Honorable mentions to Carver’s Lightning Creek Lager and Steamworks’ Third Eye P.A.
Before moving to Durango, I spent a little more than a decade in the Roaring Fork Valley, specifically Aspen, but I tell people the valley because it doesn’t sound like I’m name dropping, and the majority of restaurants I frequented during that time were outside of Fat City. Two such spots were Nepal, a Himalayan restaurant, and Tortilleria La Roca, a Mexican grocer specializing in fresh tortillas.
If those are piquing anyone’s taste buds, you probably already know my unofficial Durango counterparts: Himalayan Kitchen and Tortilleria La Flor. I earmarked Himalayan Kitchen simply for the aromas wafting out of it, and made a beeline for it as soon as a couple of co-workers mentioned it as one of their favorites. I discovered La Flor in a less romantic fashion (Google) but would make love to their tortillas.
There’s comfort in familiarity, which is probably a big reason why I’ve found great Nepalese food in Colorado’s peaks, so a big thank you to those establishments.
There isn’t a fix for brunch in Durango – or Aspen or Chicago or Miami or Denver or Omaha. This niche meal is almost exclusively sought out on Sundays, and turns finding a table between 10:30 a.m. and noon into an impromptu workout, or a fight with your spouse.
Between flocks of college students, discombobulated families and hungover people operating on a handful of working brain cells, I feel for any host trying to wrangle potential diners into a booth. I don’t know why the only Sunday breakfast options are a pastry and coffee from the grocery store, or violence.
One such Sunday, we literally couldn’t pull into the parking lot of one restaurant, were told it would be a 30- to 45-minute wait at another, and then finally were squeezed into a counter after calling ahead to get on the waitlist. The food was delicious, and I plan on returning to Oscar’s because I have a date with a cinnamon roll, but I might do that on a Saturday, or get one to go to avoid the shame of eating a cinnamon roll for the table to myself.
I might hold off on that for now though because there’s still too much left uneaten in Durango.
Sean Beckwith is the Food Editor at The Durango Herald. Reach him at sbeckwith@durangoherald.com.
