{"id":24387,"date":"2024-12-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-restaurant-set-to-take-over-former-primus-location-in-downtown-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:52:31","slug":"new-restaurant-set-to-take-over-former-primus-location-in-downtown-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-restaurant-set-to-take-over-former-primus-location-in-downtown-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"New restaurant set to take over former Primus location in downtown Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3818e26c-ce49-4c0c-8cde-71b880f232d1&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1074\" alt=\"Primus is located at 1017 Main Ave. in Durango, which was previously Doc Hathaway&amp;#x2019;s Caf&amp;#xe9; and Skinny&amp;#x2019;s Grill.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Primus is located at 1017 Main Ave. in Durango, which was previously Doc Hathaway&amp;#x2019;s Caf&amp;#xe9; and Skinny&amp;#x2019;s Grill.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A new restaurant is coming to downtown Durango in place of Primus.<\/p>\n<p>A new small plate and oyster bar restaurant called Oye will be moving into the space at 1017 Main Ave.<\/p>\n<p>Primus closed earlier this year, less than a year after the death of its executive chef, John Daly, in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Oye owner Brandon Salisbury compared the new restaurant\u2019s concept to a tapas bar. He said he was trying to bring something new to Durango\u2019s downtown restaurant scene.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s so much great about downtown Durango, but everybody was telling me that this was something we didn\u2019t have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Salisbury envisions Oye as an affordable restaurant, emphasizing that he doesn\u2019t want any dishes to exceed $20. That stands in contrast to Primus, which featured a fine dining menu focused on wild game, with relatively expensive entr\u00e9es.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe previous spot was expensive but I\u2019m definitely trying to be more price-conscious,\u201d Salisbury said.<\/p>\n<p>He described it as an ideal spot for small groups of two to four, emphasizing quick service. The concept centers around conversation and continuous snacking.<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant is expected to employ about 10 people.<\/p>\n<p>Salisbury brings years of experience in the restaurant industry, coupled with the past decade spent working in beverage distribution. The restaurant is currently undergoing renovations, but Salisbury aims to open in March. His team began working on turning over the restaurant roughly four months ago.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s recruiting local artists to paint the restaurant\u2019s bottom floor, aiming to create a strong sense of community. Additionally, the restaurant will offer tiki-style cocktails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, I\u2019m seeing everything Durango doesn\u2019t have and I\u2019m doing that,\u201d Salisbury said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-b7b1e58b7e5c88013798282f8301815b\"><a href=\"mailto:tbrown@durangoherald.com\">tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>business will feature small plate concepts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,314,950,28,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-downtown-durango","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78513,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387\/revisions\/78513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24387"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}