Hit the ST. VRAIN BAR AND CANTINA for pre-gaming a Red Rocks show
By Jay McKinney
EVERY VISIT to The Fort is a trip back in time to the 1800s. The expansive restaurant located on Highway 8 in Morrison was built in 1962 as an authentic replica of Bent’s fur trading fort in La Junta that operated from 1833 to 1849.
At Bent’s Old Fort, traders, trappers and numerous Native American tribes would meet to conduct business and seek shelter in the vast American West.
Today, people can visit The Fort—the one in Morrison—and enjoy a variety of tasty drinks and entrees that aren’t commonly found on most restaurant menus. While it accommodates formal sit-down dining, the opening of the St. Vrain Cantina and Bar within the restaurant offers guests the same delicious menu with a more casual dining experience.
“We’ve had the cantina, but it’s always been a service bar for parties, and post-COVID, we decided to remake and rethink it,” says Holly Arnold Kinney, proprietress of The Fort. “There are a lot of people who are out hiking, who want to come in for a drink and an appetizer, and now that we offer full service on our covered outside patio, we needed additional seating for customers waiting for their tables.”
Kinney is the daughter of Elizabeth and Sam Arnold, who had the vision to build The Fort and turn it into a restaurant.
Before opening the restaurant, the Arnolds did extensive research to find dishes that were popular during the 19th century and could be featured on the menu as “new foods of the Old West.” Appetizers like the roasted bison bone marrow, discovered in a diary from a travel writer who visited the American Southwest in the mid-1800s, referred to as prairie butter by the early pioneers, are now a staple on the menu along with other foods such as elk, quail and traditional recipes from Mexico.
“We serve buffalo marrow in the bone as it was described in Lewis Garrard’s diary,” Kinney says. “When we read his description, we thought, “We have to do this.” After some discussion with the purveyor, the restaurant now gets its bison bones with the knobs removed and sawn in half. The chef puts them under the broiler and serves them with a dash of Hawaiian clay salt.
With incredible food served in such a unique building, the restaurant and St. Vrain Bar and Cantina is popular with locals and tourists in need of a bite before their Red Rocks show, and it also caters to private parties, weddings and other events. Its name comes from French nobleman Ceran St. Vrain, who was a business partner with the Bent brothers of Bent’s Old Fort. In the bar, there is a large portrait of Ceran St. Vrain and, according to Kinney, some of his direct descendants have visited.
While The Fort is known for its game meats, serving upwards of 80,000 bison entrees per year, it also has incredible beef steaks, salmon, lobster and vegetarian dishes. One exciting appetizer recently added to the menu is Snakes in a Blanket—rattlesnake and rabbit meat sausage wrapped in a pastry and served with a red chili dipping sauce.
As far as libations go, the prickly pear margarita is a huge hit, and the Bloody Mary with Saddle Leather is a delicious drink offered during its brunch service that started on June 7. The Bloody Mary mix is made from scratch, and the cocktail comes dressed with a buffalo stick as opposed to a slice of bacon.
Stop by St. Vrain Cantina and Bar for your next pre-Red Rocks venture, or visit The Fort for a special occasion. Either way, you’re sure to leave with the same feeling of satisfaction as the trappers and traders who found solace at Bent’s Fort in the 1800s.
THE FORT & ST. VRAIN BAR AND CANTINA
19192 CO-8 Morrison 303.697.4771 thefort.com
