The journey is more fun then the destination

One of the best parts about our short Durango trip was driving there! Utah is absolutely gorgeous right now with all of the snow, if you hadn't noticed, and made for one content car ride.

Durango Coffee Company not only made me a bomb 'shot in the dark', but is a home cooks dream!

Durango Bagels: Cinnamon sugar bagel with raspberry cream cheese

Fuzziwig's Candy Shop: Valentine display

Besides the railroad and steamworks brewery, Durango also has a fun main street scene. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! They also have a small but kick ass candy store, an amazing culinary and coffee stop, and a really decent bagel shop.

Durango-Silverton Railroad

Really our whole point for going to Durango for a few days was to ride the railroad: one of Ziggy's Christmas present. It was also my first train ride. The train was built in the 1880's from Durango to Silverton for mining purposes. The station is still in its original location and has been open to the public for years and years. During the winter it only goes about halfway: to Cascade Canyon.

The train operates very slowly, it takes two hours each way and we got out in Cascade to eat lunch and explore a little bit. The river is completely frozen in some sports, but is starting to break, and as the train descends you can see it slowly melting more and more.

Delicious Steamworks brews and bites

You can refer to my explanation on the previous post about why you should visit steam-works brews, but of course I need to give examples of the food! So we ate three meals here, two for dinner and one for lunch why we left.

The first night I tried the plum infused Kolsh (cask beer). I wasn't too impressed. I don't get the whole cask thing: when they are trying to bring old school brewing back but this is a useless attempt because brewers have found much better techniques to store beer in modern day and age. There is a reason why they stopped storing in wooden barrels. Anyways, the Kolsh hardly had any plum flavor at all. Just a watery flat beer. The Lizard Head Red Ale was awesome though! It was so rounded with flavor and packed a punch.
That night I had the cornmeal crusted red trout with a cilantro-lime slaw and garlic mashed potatoes. I was stupid and thought it would be too dark to bring my camera along so no good pave photos, you just have to take my word.

Second night: I ordered the 3rd eye p.a. (very hoppy, almost some citrussy flavors, delicious also), and the gyro with a ceaser salad. The gyro was really good, the meat juicy and tender and the pita bread fresh. I know they had to have used pre-frozen meat because I've worked with it before. I still very much enjoyed it, and the salad was very different and inventive. The romaine was almost shredded because it was cut so thin. They garnished it with tiny roasted almonds that really gave it a nice texture and flavor element.

The third/last meal was probably the best. I ordered fish tacos that also had the cilantro-lime slaw and a Cuban aoili. Once again, I know there are slim chances of fish being fresh in Durango, but it still rocked. Two tacos and I was stuffed. Also, Thursdays are two dollar pint days! I had a different pale ale, and the steam engine lager which is very much like an amber ale in color and richness. Ziggy also enjoyed all of his meals, and actually ate almost everything. They serve the kids free ice cream as well, so he is the one who suggested we keep going back!

My tribute to Steamworks Brewery!

Zig and I took a mostly Zig vacation to Durango so we could ride the Durango-Silverton train. At first I was excited about trying some new restaurants, of course the center around almost all trips for us. After two disappointing meals, one at a supposive great pizzeria and another at the Irish embassy that has terrible Shepherd's Pie, we ended up having three meals at the Steamwork's Brewery in the 2 1/2 days we were there.

Durango has an exceptional brewer scene for such a small mountain town. These include Steamwork's which is by far the largest restaurant/brewery, Ska Brewing, Carver's, and Durango Brewery.

On our first night we headed over to Steamwork's, I really needed a awesome beer after driving three hours then swimming for a couple more hours at the Rec center. I wasn't expecting much as far as the experience. I know how the Brew Pub scene is, when food and service is usually an after thought to the beer. We were seated right away. There were many families, it was noisy, nothing I didn't expect, but when fifteen minutes floated by and we hadn't even been greeted by our server I'm thinking "Great, I knew it."

This is where I mentally put my foot in my mouth: The young woman who was our server came and apologized for our wait. This is usually good enough for me, I know how things get backed up without it being anyone fault really. I ordered a beer for myself and a milk for Zig. It took another ten minutes for her to come back with our drinks, and when they did she insisted she was would buy my beer that night. I'm thinking "Wow, that's awesome of her." It was about another ten-fifteen minutes for our food to arrive, and the supervisor personally brought us the food and apologized again for the wait and told us my entree was on the house as well. The server kept apologizing, and made sure we had everything we needed.

I have never really received this great of service when things started getting backed up for a restaurant, especially at my local brewery. I usually don't even get an apology for the wait, let alone for multiple employees to go out of their way to make sure my dining experience was turned around. Steamwork's has won me over not along with awesome service, but delicious food and beer. They have taken pub food to the next level, where you can have higher class meal at an exceptional price.