(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
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The Making of a Rural Restaurant Empire [1]
['Kim Kobersmith', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Date: 2025-01-24
Burlington, Colorado, population 3,172, sits close to the Kansas border on prime agricultural land. Part of Kit Carson County, the town leans into its wild west history: the main visitor hotspot is a collection of historic buildings called the Old Town Museum. Lucky guests can catch a viewing of a can-can dance in the saloon.
Since 2016, one of the local restaurants has also been a draw for those passing through. Chef and co-owner Ezra Gutierrez says guests who have traveled across the span of the country say the meal they had at the Dish Room was among the very best.
“Hotels at the highway intersection tell me they have seen a 15% increase in business since the restaurant opened,” said Gutierrez in an interview. “It is a meeting place for everybody, with a sophisticated judge and senator dining by guys coming in off of the ranch.”
The Dish Room is, at heart, a steakhouse. The beef is family-raised Wagyu/Angus from High Mountain Plains Wagyu and finished right there in Burlington. Gutierrez purchases it a cow at a time, then cuts each steak by hand for his specials. But that is only one portion of its offerings; the Dish Room serves dishes from a range of cuisines to a mix of about half locals and half visitors passing through on I-70.
Gutierrez and his team are classically trained and well-traveled, and the menu reflects that. It might include sushi, duck confit, salmon with miso and adobo sauce, or butternut squash enchiladas. A recent winter dinner special featured Cornish game hen, parmentier potatoes, and a sherry garlic and fresh thyme cream sauce, finished with bacon, veggies and fried carrots.
The Dish Room, like many rural restaurants, strives to cater to all palates and price ranges. Lower-priced burgers are a popular staple, as are pastas and sandwiches. The lunch menu includes a Twelve Buck Lunch section, with dishes from a poke bowl to chicken bacon pasta to a brisket plate. Gutierrez says local patrons eat at the Dish Room as many as five times a week.
The decor is modern, with an industrial-styled bar hand built from repurposed materials. Seating on the outdoor patio surrounds a custom fire pit. A favorite place to sit on pleasant evenings, it has potted plants and shade sails throughout.
The restaurant features an industrial-style hand built bar from repurposed materials. (Photo by Kim Kobersmith)
For Gutierrez, opening the Dish Room in Burlington was personal. He grew up in the community. While visiting family in Arizona and California as a kid, he fell in love with the vibe of big family dinners and the specialness of the kind of fancy restaurants that had dessert trays. After culinary school in Phoenix, he was exposed to different cultures and cuisines in places like New Zealand, Belize, and Indonesia. He incorporated the new flavors and techniques into his cooking.
“A steakhouse makes sense in this geographic region, but we are not stuck to one thing,” he said. “We want to mess around and put new things on the menu. When we get bored, we change it.”
In time, though, Gutierrez decided to take what he had learned and bring it back home. He wanted to provide his community with its own special place. His parents were aging and he wanted to spend time with them. One of the greatest gifts of Gutierrez’s return was working with his dad, who served as main prep cook until he passed away from Covid.
Thursday’s special: a pita taco with prime rib and chimichurri, served with a sweet corn tamale. Gutierrez focuses on local ingredients for his dishes inspired by cuisines around the world. (Photo by Kim Kobersmith)
By celebrating rural life and incorporating local ingredients, Gutierrez says the Dish Room is part of what makes Burlington a community. He takes the farm to table moniker seriously. Local Berkshire pork is raised by J&J Farms and hamburger is from nearby Wylie Meat Packing. Staff can go out and pick vegetables in the morning at Warden Farms and cook it in the evening. By offering start-up assistance and a source of steady business, he has helped launch at least two other food businesses: Viking Aquaponics, which grows salad greens and edible flowers, and Great Plains Fungi, which grows a variety of specialty mushrooms.
Gutierrez is using his skills to benefit communities outside Burlington, too, with sister restaurants in two Colorado towns further east. 4th and Main, in Wray, opened in 2006, and plans are in place to build a brewery on the ground floor of the space in 2025. Tavern 1301 opened in 2022 in the historic Cow Palace Hotel, a 96-room accommodation that partners completely renovated. The menu has many similarities to the Dish Room.
“All the restaurants work in symphony,” said Gutierrez. “I and my partners fluctuate between locations, and we push staff back and forth.”
The Dish Room is a direct result of Gutierrez’s commitment to giving rural communities tasty and celebratory dining experiences. After all, he says, a town is just streets in a row until it has a restaurant. Then, it has a soul.
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