{"id":92710,"date":"2019-08-01T01:27:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T01:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vallecitos-newest-restaurant-brings-mountain-man-culture-to-life\/"},"modified":"2019-08-01T01:27:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T01:27:37","slug":"vallecitos-newest-restaurant-brings-mountain-man-culture-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vallecitos-newest-restaurant-brings-mountain-man-culture-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Vallecito\u2019s newest restaurant brings \u2018mountain man\u2019 culture to life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Chad
Chad Riddles, general manager and bar manager at Fur Trappers in Vallecito, makes drinks for customers Tuesday. Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, which opened in May, serves trapper-era dishes, such as duck, bison and quail. The bar serves Prohibition-style cocktails with house-made ingredients.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

VALLECITO \u2013 At the Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar at Vallecito Lake, co-owner Cheryl Marable raced around checking temperatures, waiting on tables, placing orders and managing operations. Marable, who always loved the building, jumped on the chance to buy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I have to have that building!\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Business is steady for the mountain man-themed, family-owned restaurant, which opened in May. Now that the restaurant and gift shop are up and running, the owners, Cheryl and Dwayne Marable, are gearing up for event catering and other expansions. Fur Trappers blends easily into the small, touristic mountain community of about 500 residents, where success means teaming up with the neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a steep, huge learning curve for me,\u201d said Cheryl, a first-time business owner who used to work in medical billing. \u201cOpening was a blessing and a relief that we could finally get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is a family affair. Dwayne, Cheryl and their daughter, Casta, all share management duties. During a year of renovations, Cheryl and Dwayne spent their days at full-time jobs and the rest of their time working on the restaurant. \u201cWe had no lives,\u201d Cheryl said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant and bar features acoustic performances, conference rooms and lakefront property. Rustic, mountain decor, like stag heads and antique traps, hang on the walls and old Westerns play on the television.<\/p>\n

\"Fur
Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, which opened in May, brings a \u201cmountain man\u201d theme to Vallecito Lake.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The food fits the theme, with trapper-era dishes like duck, bison and quail. The bar also serves Prohibition-style cocktails with house-made ingredients. The variety doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

The menu features po\u2019 boy sandwiches, Louisiana-style gumbo and domestically sourced catfish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a mixture of everything, a little of this, a little of that,\u201d Cheryl said.<\/p>\n

The theme harkens back to a simpler time, which, to the Marables, embodies the Vallecito area. They drew inspiration from the 1800s, when fur trappers, Native Americans and other travelers would gather at Rocky Mountain Rendezvous for festivities and trading.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is the first new business in Vallecito for years, said Jim Schank, owner of Schank House, a restaurant that used to be in Fur Trappers\u2019 current location. The new restaurant has great food and provides a place for people to socialize, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome location with beautiful views,\u201d Schank said. \u201cThe backyard is spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Vallecito, residents make sure everyone succeeds. \u201cIt\u2019s a community effort up here. We all help each other,\u201d Cheryl said. She could run to a neighbor if she ever ran out of an ingredient, and the businesses in town coordinate their hours to reduce direct competition and keep places open for customers throughout the week.<\/p>\n

\"A
A stag head decorates the wall and \u201cRio Grande,\u201d a classic Western film, plays in the background Tuesday at Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe are a small community, so we all have to succeed together,\u201d Schank said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is year-round, which for a town with a seasonal economy is a \u201cbig deal,\u201d Cheryl said. They\u2019re currently gearing up for the fall and winter with new seafood dishes, local Christmas-themed consignment items in the gift shop and a fire pit in their backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of room for us to grow now that we\u2019re finishing the first season,\u201d said General Manager Chad Riddles.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also expanding the patio space to include a pool table and jukebox, and they are ready to start catering and hosting events and weddings, Riddles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to expand, and with the community, that will help, too,\u201d Cheryl said. \u201cWe need to bring people up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

with trapper-era themed foods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6002,5736,5735,5741,5899,6177],"tags":[438,29,450,1394],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-92710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-news","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","category-restaurant-and-catering","category-vallecito-reservoir","tag-food","tag-newsletter","tag-restaurant-and-catering","tag-vallecito-reservoir"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92710","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=92710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92710"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=92710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}