{"id":25096,"date":"2024-10-31T18:27:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T00:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-new-cafe-comes-to-mancos\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:09:56","slug":"a-new-cafe-comes-to-mancos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-new-cafe-comes-to-mancos\/","title":{"rendered":"A new caf\u00e9 comes to Mancos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery sign. (Courtesy Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Wednesday morning, just before 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

Clouds block the sun; it\u2019s gray and quiet downtown Mancos. Snow flurries fall slowly, delicately dancing through the thin air.<\/p>\n

People are rising like the snowfall: slowly.<\/p>\n

Some stumble into the new Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery on South Main Street, which is alive, awake and warm, having opened at 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Staff welcome those coming in for breakfast or taking their morning coffee to go; they\u2019re especially rested after their day off yesterday, as Moondog is closed on Tuesdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle\u201d by the Beatles is playing, a welcome background noise filling lulls in conversation, and broken by sounds from the kitchen \u2013 which is open to the restaurant \u2013 and the grinding of coffee beans.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s housed in the historic Bauer bank building, which, built in 1905, is \u201cthe oldest surviving commercial masonry building in the Mancos Valley,\u201d according to History Colorado.<\/p>\n

For the past 16 years, the building was Absolute Bakery and Caf\u00e9, something Sasha Cucci, who owns Moondog with his family, called a \u201cmainstay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cABC was very much the hub of town, kind of one of the main arteries where everyone did everything,\u201d said Sasha. \u201cIt was a meeting place all the tourists would come through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Breakfast
Breakfast views from the new caf\u00e9 in Mancos. (Courtesy Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said that recently, a few fans of Absolute Bakery were in Grand Junction and heard about Moondog opening, so they drove four hours try it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so cool and flattering,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople seem to appreciate it, even though it\u2019s a little different from what\u2019s been here years prior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 19, Absolute owners David and Karen Blaine posted a letter on its Facebook saying that \u201cgrandkids, trails, slopes, books and travels are calling. It\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so they sold it to \u201cexperienced restaurateurs\u201d who \u201care going to remodel the bakery to improve its serviceability and kitchen operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasha said the sale was \u201cserendipitous\u201d and also done quietly.<\/p>\n

He said after he moved to town, his mother, Jamille and her partner, Dominique Falkner, soon followed.<\/p>\n

He had lived in Hesperus and the Durango area, and came to Mancos for firewood in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I drove from Durango over here, it was just this epic landscape. It was bigger, it was more moisture, all the trees were more wild,\u201d said Sasha. \u201cI remember always romanticizing being in the mountains here.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of that, restaurants have been in their family for four generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be the fourth,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

Jamille and Dominque each owned caf\u00e9\u2019s separately, for 25 and 30 years, respectively. After some time, the pair got together and opened the first \u2013 and only other \u2013 location of Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery in Key West, Florida.<\/p>\n

So when David Blaine, who owned Absolute Bakery with his wife, heard the restaurant family had moved to town, he was interested in meeting them. He didn\u2019t want it to go to anyone who would \u201cmess it up,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just too good to pass up,\u201d said Sasha. \u201cEspecially being in the area on and off for so long, coming to ABC as a tourist \u2026 and loving the place for all the Colorado quirk that it had, so it was just like, how could this actually be available.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so last spring, they officially purchased the bakery, but Absolute stayed open until Jan. 1, 2024 because Sasha and his family weren\u2019t quite ready to take it over just yet, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA restaurant was the last thing we were thinking of opening,\u201d Jamille said.<\/p>\n

In fact, Sasha said she had asked him never to get into the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother my whole life had never wanted me to work in a restaurant,\u201d said Sasha. \u201cShe said go do something else, so I went to college, I had all these other dreams and aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a reckoning, a growing point\u201d to do something his family\u2019s done for generations before him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry is different today than what it was for me growing up,\u201d said Jamille. \u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to fit into a mold. You can create what kind of environment you want for you and your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRenting it out wouldn\u2019t pay homage to the community. ABC was a big hub; we wanted to pay tribute to the town and the space and do something to create jobs,\u201d Jamille said.<\/p>\n

So they decided to open Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery,<\/p>\n

Admittedly, they were overly ambitious with how simple they could make the project, Sasha said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The vibrant, desert mural inside the new Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery in Mancos. (Courtesy Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The green, polka-dotted tiles that line the bar at Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery. (Courtesy Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe got in here, we started doing some cleaning, and then all of a sudden we were down to the joists, walls removed \u2013 just one of those typical remodel stories,\u201d Sasha said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

It quickly turned into nine months of renovations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in part because the building is so old and an \u201cicon of this town in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family \u201creally wanted to be careful about making it too new \u2026 (and) to instead highlight some of the attributes and the really pretty notes, cause it\u2019s such a beautiful space,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

So in those nine months, they exposed more of the stone wall and created a storefront, opening its grand front windows to the kitchen and rest of the space.<\/p>\n

They decided to keep the general format of the restaurant while bringing it up to date in the kitchen and with \u201ccontemporary decorations,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

A vibrant desert mural covers the better part of two walls and dark green tiles with large black and white polka dots line the entirety of the bar: It\u2019s a whimsical, colorful, patterned place.<\/p>\n

Much of the d\u00e9cor is repurposed things they found in the basement of the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a deep dungeon of no cleaning for 140 years. We found so much cool stuff buried in there,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

On a main wall, directly across from the bar, there\u2019s a big sign that reads \u201cRESTAURANT,\u201d which they found buried in the coal room from when it was a restaurant in \u201820s or \u201830s, Sasha said.<\/p>\n

All the wood that went into building the shelving and server stations was also found in the basement, as is the ornate tin office door.<\/p>\n

The post office boxes on the left when you walk in the door were there, too, from when it was a post office ages ago, Sasha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to keep as much of that stuff in the restaurant was really fun. It took some critical thinking to try and figure out how to incorporate it, but there was just so much beautiful stuff to keep around,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a cool dance to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As far as the other location in Key West goes, Sasha said it\u2019s the \u201csame but different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to adapt the existing menu to the Southwest, using a little bit more Colorado ingredients, a bit more regional-type stuff, but still pretty plug and play for breakfast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the Keys, the menu is, of course, \u201creally tropical.\u201d There\u2019s more seafood, tropical fruits and bright ingredients like pineapple and mango.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we definitely shifted away from the seafood to beef from a local ranch in Hesperus and iconic green chile stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an ode to the area, and we hope to keep adding some more regional stuff over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, they also intend to start serving dinner and stay open later than 3 p.m. In the spring, they\u2019d like to offer riverfront dining, too, Jamille said.<\/p>\n

But as they\u2019ve opened, and as new people in town, the community has been \u201cgentle as we get up and running,\u201d Sasha said.<\/p>\n

The community has been welcoming, too, Jamille said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing felt so silly: Everything from the build-out to my own personal relationship with doing a restaurant,\u201d said Sasha.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coolest thing I think I\u2019ve had happen is coming in after we opened one day a little late and seeing everyone here and not being on the other side working it. That\u2019s when it was really real: It\u2019s a functioning, breathing place with or without me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moondog Caf\u00e9 & Bakery officially opened Sept. 5 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25096","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=25096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78797,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25096\/revisions\/78797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25096"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}