Customers who visited the Lone Spur Cafes in Arizona kept telling the owner the cowboy menu would be a perfect fit for Durango.
“When our guests talk, we try to listen because they usually know what they are talking about,” owner Cory Farley said.
After several years of looking to come to Main Avenue, Farley opened his third Lone Spur Cafe location in the Francisco’s building on Aug. 1.
He had talked with the owner of the building about moving in previously, but Farley said, before the building was split into three spaces, it would have been too big for the cafe, which serves hearty breakfasts like steak and eggs and omelets all day. The lunch menu features steak, burgers, sandwiches and salads.
The building had been home to Francisco’s Restaurante y Cantina for 46 years before it closed in 2014. The Lone Spur shares the building with Moose on the Loose, a new clothing shop, and Cerda 7 Cantina y Comida, a Mexican restaurant that is still under construction.
The building is still owned by Francis Garcia, and Farley said he turned to Garcia for expertise about running a restaurant in Durango. He owns locations in Prescott and Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix.
“He was a big help,” Farley said.
Farley hired some of the former Francisco’s cooks to fill out its staff of 30 employees, said general manager Scott Finzer.
In the first week of business, customers have noticed the atmosphere that Farley’s wife, Jenny, worked to create.
The couple commissioned a range of bright paintings by Hugh Slayden on the walls and the tables, some with local themes, like a large Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad locomotive and mining scene.
Jenny Farley decorated the walls in layers, starting with animal hides and paintings and filled in with cowboy paraphernalia, like spurs, boots and “wanted” posters.
“The comment we’ve heard more than anything is: ‘Wow, we love your decor,’” Farley said.
For its first month, the cafe will serve breakfast and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
In September, the restaurant plans to start serving dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. Its cowboy steak house dinners have proved popular elsewhere, with one location selling nine tons of prime rib and rib eye steaks last year, Farley said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
