Durango restaurants

A guide to Durango restaurants still serving for pickup or delivery during the coronavirus pandemic [ eat]

Not everything has to be doom and gloom during this worldwide pandemic, just most of it! Meanwhile, we’re taking what we can get as far as bright spots in our weeks and one of those includes local restaurants that are still doing business. See, while the idea of learning to cook all these new things while holed up at home sounded appealing at first, we realized very quickly how much we love and miss our old food haunts. Luckily for us, there’s still plenty of Durango businesses offering curbside pick up and/or delivery to all us quarantined homebodies. These Durango restaurants are offering phone and online orders for takeout or curbside pick up:

11th Street Station 1101 Main Avenue (970) 422-8482 11thstreetstation.com

2nd Deli & Spirits 601 East 2nd Avenue (970) 259-1000 2nddelidurango.com

81301 Coffee Roasters 3101 Main Avenue (970) 385-1941 81301coffee.com

Animas Brewing Company 1560 E 2nd Avenue (970) 403-8850 animasbrewing.com

» » One of the massive burritos from Backcountry Gourmet

breaddurango.com

Cuckoo’s Chicken House & Waterin’ Hole 128 E College Drive (970) 259-6322 facebook.com/Cuckoos.Chicken

Diamond Belle Saloon 699 Main Avenue (970) 375-7150 strater.com

Durango Doughworks 2653 Main Avenue (970) 247-1610 Durangodoughworks.com

» » Chang Thai slaps ANY time, but especially when you’re sick of your own cooking

Animas Chocolate & Coffee Company 920 Main Avenue (970) 317-5761 Animaschocolatecompany.com

Baskin Robbins 32 Town Plaza (970) 247-1231 baskinrobbins.com Durango Bagel 106 E 5th Street (970) 385-7297 facebook.com/Durangobagel

Durango Coffee Company 730 Main Avenue (970) 426-4088 durangocoffee.com

Durango Craft Spirits 1120 Main Avenue (970) 247-1919 durangospirits.com/

Bread 135 East 8th Street (970) 247-2220 Durango Joe’s North Main Drive Thru 3455 North Main Avenue (970) 375-6384 Durangojoes.com

East by Southwest 160 East College Drive (970) 247-5533 eastbysouthwest.com

Fired Up Pizzeria 735 Main Avenue (970) 247-0264 fireduppizzeria.com

Four Leaves Winery 528 Main Avenue (970) 403-8182 fourleaveswinery.com/ Gianni’s Oven & Grill 2477 Main Avenue (970) 764-4727 facebook.com/GiannisOvenandGrill Griego’s 2603 Main Avenue (970) 259-3558 facebook.com/pages/Griegos-North Himalayan Kitchen 992 Main Avenue (970) 259-0956 Himkitchen.com Homeslice Pizza 2915 Main Avenue (970) 422-8337 homeslicedelivers.com Jean Pierre Bakery Cafe and Wine Bar 601 Main Avenue (970) 247-7700 facebook.com/jeanpierredurango Jimmy John’s 1316 Main Avenue (970) 259-0577 jimmyjohns.com » » Fired Up, home of some of our favorite pizza Continued on Page 6

DHL Garden Supply 178 Bodo Dr. Suite B Durango, CO 81303 970-247-1090

Locally Owned and Established in 2011

Durango’s Only Year Round Garden Supply Store

We have ALL your basic garden needs met from SEED to HARVEST!

https://dhlgrows.com/

Steak, the Strater, and self-dating: Living it up in quarantine It’s pricey, but a Pepper Steak Herbert will help you forget the epidemic for a minute

Unlike many Coloradans, I tend to hibernate through the winter. During those short days and long, cold nights, I sit indoors, planning out the rest of the year. And spring 2020 was going to rock. There were food and beer festivals to go to, live music to enjoy, and even movies to look forward to seeing at the theater.

Then we all had to trade everything in for Netflix and whatever we can find to do around the house. You’re almost certainly not meeting new people. I hope your social needs are met by phone calls and whoever you’re quarantining with because unless you’re well into a relationship, dating is now harder and more awkward than almost anything else.

No worries, though. All the relationship blogs I’ve scrolled through (in a manner that is very dignified and not at all panicked) in the last few weeks say taking yourself on solo dates is not only fine, but good for you. Apparently, it boosts your self-confidence and adds richness to your life.

Consulting my mental list of date ideas, it turned out No. 37 (after No. 36: “Cosmic Bowling”) is more or less possible and quite sensual – “Enjoy a steak dinner for two.”

And one of the places you can still get a steak is an iconic symbol of Durango.

At any other time, the Strater Hotel would consist of three restaurants or bars: The Diamond Belle, the Mahogany Grille and The Office Spiritorium. But, thanks to COVID-19, none of those are open. Nevertheless, the hotel has the kitchen running, offering a take-out menu for breakfast and dinner, between 8 and 10 a.m., and 5 and 8 p.m.

The very abridged menu consists of Mahogany Grille fare, including four breakfast items, starters, a burger, two sandwiches, a turkey pot pie, two steaks, and salmon. They also have take-out beer, wine, and cocktails available, but if you’re looking for the complex cocktails The Office had before, you’re out of luck. They’re down to simple cocktails, and by simple, I mean booze-and-mixer beverages: rum and coke, vodka soda, etc.

For my self-date, I called and ordered the Pepper Steak Herbert – a 3-year award-winning exclusive of the Strater consisting of a seared peppercorn-encrusted filet with mango chutney, cognac, and a natural sauce (and mashed potatoes and bacon green beans). And a basket of fries, because why the heck not.

About 20 minutes later, someone met me at my car window in front of the hotel. In transit, the heat of the steak and mashed potatoes caused the container they were in to weaken, causing a very small but sticky mess and some mixing between entree and sides. But I feel like this happens all the time with to-go food.

The mix of flavors on the steak was perfect, divided between the sweetness and tanginess of the chutney, the slight spiciness of the peppercorns and just an amazing little slab of meat (for what it’s worth, it was cooked exactly to my specifications, despite the unusual conditions). Tender, moist, and exquisite, Nick Gonzales/DGO » » Fries and the Pepper Steak Herbert from the Strater Hotel’s take-out menu.

it didn’t survive long on the plate. Thanks to the turbulence of my vehicle, the mango and cognac flavor carried over to the potatoes as well, which were already probably light and buttery. Together, they were just about the greatest combination of meat and potatoes I’d had in a while – certainly since the virus killed off most specialty dining options.

The green beans were green beans, a dish I have no strong feelings for one way or another. The fact that they were flavored with bacon, as well as the sloshed-over sauce from the steak, was good, but I’d just as soon have it the other way around — green bean-flavored bacon.

The post-dinner basket of fries – I ate the steak first because it seemed like the item with the most direct relationship between quality and temperature – fell on the thinner, crispier side of the fry spectrum. Flavored with truffle oil, herbs, and Parmesan, they at least temporarily filled the eternally-yawning fry-shaped hole in my soul. I don’t know that I’d ever head to the Strater just for the fries, but they weren’t half bad.

I don’t know that I felt more self-confident after my solo date, but I did feel as though my life had been enriched. (I’m assuming enrichment feels identical to slight queasiness caused by overeating.) Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of this quarantine. — Nick Gonzales

From Page 5

Jitters Java 802 Camino del Rio (970) 799-5282 facebook.com/jittersjava

Lone Spur Cafe 619 Main Avenue (970) 764-4280 lonespurcafe.com

Los Amigos Del Sur Mexican Restaurant 835 Main Avenue #106 (970) 764-4042 durangoamigos.com Mahogany Grille 699 Main Avenue (970) 247-4433 strater.com

Mama Silvia’s Italian Kitch en 150 E College Drive (970) 247-5533 mammasilvias.com

McDonald’s 201 W College Drive (970) 247-2446 Mcdonalds.com

Michel’s Corner Crepes 598 Main Avenue (970) 769-0256 michelscorner.com

Oscar’s Cafe 18 Town Plaza (970) 247-0526 oscarsdurango.com

Papa Murphy’s 12 Town Plaza (970) 382-0961 Papamurphys.com

RGP’s Flame Grilled Wraps 835 Main Avenue (970) 382-9868 rgpswraps.com

Rice Monkeys 1050 Main Avenue (970) 403-3852 ricemonkeysdurango.com

Seasons of Durango 764 Main Avenue (970) 382-9790 seasonsofdurango.com

Serious TX BBQ 3535 Main Avenue (970) 247-2240 serioustexasbbq.com

Ska Brewing 225 Girard Street (970) 247-5792 skabrewing.com

Starbucks 2817 Main Avenue Continued on Page 10