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Sopris Restaurant building outside of Glenwood to house Mexican eatery with entertainment
Dos Hermanos owners hope to open by mid-December
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The face of the old Sopris Restaurant has changed and so have the faces running the place. David Edgar, left, and his sons, David Jr. and Derek, plan to open Dos Hermanos in December.
Post Independent/Kelley Cox
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BY JOHN GARDNER
November 15, 2007
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The old Sopris Restaurant has new life in the midvalley location near the Colorado Mountain College turnoff.
And David Edgar, the restaurateur who took over the lease on Nov. 1, hopes his 25 years experience in the restaurant industry will help make the already unique property a popular spot for up- and downvalley folks alike.
"It's a great location," Edgar said Wednesday. "There is no place between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs to get a good meal."
Edgar's two sons, David Jr. and Derek, will manage the new Mexican restaurant named "Dos Hermanos."
They hope to have it opened by mid-December.
Edgar knows the restaurant business. He owned a chain of Mexican restaurants in Austin, Texas, before selling them and moving to Carbondale in 1999. It's the area that attracted him, but it was the business that kept him here. Now he's passing the torch to his sons.
"I'm too old for this," said the 50-year-old Edgar Sr. "They've both been in the industry for 15 years, it's time for them to have their own place."
His first venture in the valley was the Mi Casita Mexican restaurant in Carbondale, which he purchased soon after he moved his family to the valley. His nephew bought that restaurant a couple of years ago. That's when Edgar ventured into new directions and opened the Aspen Comedy Club in Aspen.
It hasn't been all laughs, but it's been a good business. And the comedy is just one of several entertainment aspects he's looking to incorporate into the new restaurant.
"What do people in the valley do for entertainment?" Edgar asked. "They either go out to dinner or they go to a movie. And it's the older crowds that are really under-served."
Edgar is planning to offer dinning amenities such as salsa dancing one night a week, a taco bar during happy hour, a game room with foosball and pool tables, karaoke and live music on the weekends. He said the building is big enough for all of that to fit comfortably and that's the reason he's had his eye on it for so long.
"It took me over a year to get (Charles) Cunniffe and his partners to agree to rent the space to me," Edgar said.
Edgar said he had interest in the building when it was still owned by Kurt Wigger, who sold the property in January of 2006 to Sopris Properties LLC. In September of 2006 Charles Cunniffe, a partner of Sopris Properties, told the Post Independent that "It would take someone who could get their arms wrapped around what it can offer," and that he "didn't have any prospects" at that time, but that "he was open to ideas."
So the building has sat vacant since the purchase. But it looks like he's found a good fit with Edgar and his sons.
"This is the perfect place for us," Edgar said.
The menu will feature Mexican entrees and Mexican sea food items with the specialty focus on several types of fajitas. The building is big enough to accommodate a bar area, a formal dining room, and a game room.
"We want to have a mixture of things here, keep it new, so people don't know what to expect," Edgar said.
The only thing that Edgar is unsure about is the new Bair Chase housing development bordering the restaurant property. He indicated some concerns the building may be torn down to make room for the development. Cunniffe and Bair Chase developers Westpac Investments LLC, weren't available for comment Wednesday.
But Edgar is hopeful his business will be an asset to the new community and that developers will want them to be a part of it.
"We're hoping that there will be some other commercial development there," Edgar said. "We would like to be included in the new development. It's up to us to prove we can be part of it."
Contact John Gardner: 384-9114
jgardner@postindependent.com
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO
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