You won’t believe me when I tell you about my extensive time spent on the range, my tired cowboy boots with holes in their soles, my syrup-colored horse named Molasses, my fierce butter- churning skills, my exhausting hike to the Fremont dwellings overlooking the Big Thompson River, my favorite body of water in the state.
This city boy has legs, friends.
And those legs took me to a dude ranch a couple of weeks ago. That experience was for another story, but the set-up is necessary because it tells you what kind of state I was in when I entered the Silver Grill Cafe. I was dirty and unkempt, and my socks were soaked through because the range was snowy.
If I drank coffee, I would have ordered a cup. (Some cowboy I am.) And if I were a regular, I would have sipped the coffee out of a personalized mug that sits on the towering shelves when I wasn’t there.
The walls of personalized mugs at the Silver Grill Café embody the spirit of the joint, which is homey and laid back. Instead of coffee, I ordered a mimosa. It took a long while to get there, but it was solidly refreshing, served in a champagne glass with two cocktail straws and an orange slice.
From my seat at the breakfast bar, the Silver Grill feels like a country kitchen and looks like a farmhouse converted into an eatery. It’s a place to run into people, to nosh on one of its famous cinnamon rolls, to watch the muted football game overhead on the flat-screen, to carry out Sunday morning traditions with a New York Times and a stack of crispy bacon.
It’s also a place for excellent brunch – evident by the line stretching out its doors on a recent Sunday afternoon.
The cafe could do without some of its holiday decorations, though. The giant wreath above the bar is a nice touch, but the mechanical Santa – arching his arms repeatedly as if he were mounted on a Bowflex – is grotesque.
Silver Grill Cafe
218 Walnut St.; 970-484-4656
Funky: The grill’s website says it’s the oldest restaurant in northern Colorado, and you can actually feel the history in the food – especially the green chile, which is made
with care.
Skunky: With time, the cafe has learned what cheesy merchandising can do for a business. Note the unsightly hats and T-shirts behind the bar in the glass case.
