Durango’s newest Mexican restaurant opens its doors
Goodbye Christina’s Bar and Grille, hello Chavolos Mexican Restaurant.
The restaurant space next to the Best Western on U.S. Highway 160 changed hands Jan. 1 and Chavolos opened two weeks later, serving lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day but Saturday and Sunday, when it’s open until 10 p.m.
“I wanted to be in Durango for quite a few years, and when the opportunity came up, we did it,” said owner Edgar Salvador Ortiz.
Ortiz started with his first restaurant 10 years ago in Pagosa Springs and now has outlets in Mancos and Bayfield, as well. The Durango location will feature the same popular dishes such as enchiladas, tacos, carne asadas and fajitas. Local favorites pork carnitas and chile verde also will be on the menu.
Ortiz hails from Jalisco, Mexico, home of what else? Tequila, of which he carries many brands.
Southern fried chicken, in Durango, anyone?
Neal Drysdale, former chef de cuisine at Seasons, and Anne Drysdale, former general manager of Fired Up Pizza, have a new venture. Yardbird Eatery opened Dec. 15 at 139 East Fifth St., in the space formerly occupied by Poppy’s sandwich shop.
Offering from-scratch Southern cuisine, specialties include their signature buttermilk fried chicken, freshly fried to order in traditional flavor or “Nashville Hot,” and bourbon pecan pie.
“We offer an exceptional value,” Neal Drysdale said about his penchant for using fresh, natural, organic and locally sourced ingredients. “It doesn’t have to be $30 or $40 a plate. It can be done for less than $15.”
Also in the works, pending approval of their liquor license, is a bourbon bar, plus beer and wine.
The eatery is open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and can be reached at 259-1377 or online at www.yardbirdeatery.com.
Steamworks releases s’mores specialty brew
The brewmasters at Steamworks Brewing Co. invite you to cozy up to the campfire with their newest Firkin Friday release. The après-ski crowd can get a preview of “S’more Firkin” on tap at Purgy’s at Durango Mountain Resort starting Jan. 31. For downtown drinkers, the take-off on the brewery’s popular Backside Stout will be tapped at the brewery at 3 p.m. Feb. 6.
Brewer and certified cicerone Ken Martin used milk sugar, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, honey and molasses to create the graham-cracker component of the cask-conditioned ale that weighs in at a hearty 6.4 percent alcohol by volume. To that he added a little cocoa powder for some chocolate character, plus plenty of marshmallow creme.
True to traditional style, S’more Firkin is unpasteurized and unfiltered and served at cellar temperature – cool but not cold. For more information, call 259-9200 or visit www.steamworksbrewing.com.
Pamela Hasterok and Beth Holland
