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The Old Dillon Inn isn’t in Dillon and it isn’t an inn, but it does date back to the late 1800s. “A long, long time ago, it used to be the place for miners,” says the restaurant’s new owner, Joyce de la Torre, referencing its initial gold-seeking clientele. “Later it became the gathering place for people working at the ski resorts and the ranches. Everybody came together there. It was the place to come, the place to be.”
Or at least it was until 2007. That was when Bud Nicholson, who by then had co-owned the Old Dillon Inn for more than three decades, turned off the lights for the last time. The building—and much inside— effectively became a time capsule, even as Silverthorne’s 29,000-square-foot Bluebird Market sprang up around it in 2021.
This past January, the Old Dillon Inn opened its doors once more. With de la Torre and Michal Ulehla at the helm (the experienced local restaurateurs also own Frisco’s Bagalis and two Bread+Salt locations), the eatery will offer just enough nostalgia for original patrons to relive the glory days and enough heart to win over a whole new crowd.
Here, we offer a then-and-now look at the new Old Dillon Inn.
The Old Dillon Inn Bar
Then: Plenty of rumors whir around the origins of the Old Dillon Inn’s bar. According to local lore, it dates back to the 1870s, when the mahogany structure was the signature element of a watering hole in Fairplay. In the 1930s, all 36 feet of it traveled by train to the outskirts of Dillon, where the bar became part of what miners and cowboys (including one ruffian who rode his horse through the front door) considered the “queen of saloons.”
Business boomed—so much so that in 1961, when the land it occupied was slated to be flooded for Dillon Reservoir, then-owner Virgil Cox deemed the bar, and the entire building around it, worth saving. Everything rode to Silverthorne on a flatbed truck, and the bartenders were serving up suds in the new location the very same day.
Now: There are still 14 stools along the bar, though all but the one topped with an intricate Western saddle have been reupholstered with a handsome teal leather. As for the bar itself, its top surface has been refinished in a golden mahogany that contrasts well with the darker coloring of the wood below. The bullet hole from some long-forgotten argument, however, remains. Look for its uneven, inch-wide scar five stools from the right.
The Old Dillon Inn Signs
Then: By the time Bud Nicholson and Dave “Wabs” Walbert took over the Old Dillon Inn in 1973, the bold “B-A-R” sign propped against the roof had seen better days. When its final letter succumbed to gravity, the men tried to fix it. As the story goes, Walbert fell off his ladder in the process, which led him to decide the effort wasn’t necessary. After all, where he was from, nobody pronounced the final R anyway. Thus, the Old Dillon Inn earned another moniker: the “Ba” Place.
Now: It’s still uncertain whether the “Ba” billboard will join the rest of the artifacts in the inn’s new iteration, but what has been salvaged is the “Good food, priced right” sign that once adorned the side of the original Dillon Inn (when it wasn’t considered “old” and was in Dillon). Though a few letters are gone, you can’t miss the bold promise spelled out in blue and red. Another long-loved motto—“Free beer tomorrow”—can be spied behind the bar.
Old Dillon Inn Music
Then: Prominent musical acts often traveled through Silverthorne on their way to bigger gigs. By promising a meal and a place to sleep in his band house, Nicholson managed to entice many of the country, folk, and bluegrass singers—including Tumbleweed, Jed Clampit, and the Tennessee Hat Band—to play his small stage, too. “On the weekends, that’s what we would do,” remembers Kim May, a long-time Silverthorne local who frequented the bar for nearly 25 years, “go dancing at the ODI.”
Now: The likes of Johnny Cash and Creedence Clearwater Revival singing about going to Jackson and getting home from Illinois reverberate through the speakers. De la Torre has plans to eventually revive the Old Dillon Inn’s live music scene, but for now, you’ll have to live vicariously through the two-step and boot-scoot-and-boogie scuffs marring the 100-year-old, red and white oak flooring in the main bar area.
Old Dillon Inn Menu
Then: In the early 1970s, the steak, lobster, and otherwise upscale menu on offer at the Old Dillon Inn wasn’t working. Pub fare didn’t either. So in 1974, after realizing there was just one other Mexican eatery in Summit County—and it was nearly 15 miles away in Breckenridge—Nicholson added tacos, burritos, and enchiladas to the mix. It worked.
When his competitor closed in the early ’90s, Nicholson could—and did—call the Old Dillon Inn the longest-standing Mexican restaurant in the county. The big sellers were the chicken mini “’ladas” enchiladas, May remembers, and the margaritas: “Not good margaritas,” she laughs, “but margaritas.”
Now: Though there is a better margarita on the menu today, start your evening with a Climax Manhattan, a nod to the still-operating Climax mine on Fremont Pass and made with Breckenridge Bourbon and Luxardo Sangue Morlacco cherry liqueur. For your main, try the alpine chicken supreme, ruby red trout, or 16-ounce flatiron steak.
Then again, if you’re feeling nostalgic, order the venison barbacoa enchiladas served with red pasilla chile sauce. “We wanted the menu to be a tribute to the historic menu of the Old Dillon Inn, a tribute to the ranchers north of Silverthorne and the game of Colorado, and a tribute to the community and the Mexican influence of Colorado,” de la Torre says. “It’s simple and tasty with a little flair.”
The People at Old Dillon Inn
Then: Even with a century’s worth of history, a notable music scene, and a menu more endured than loved, it was always the people who made the Old Dillon Inn special. “It was the locals’ place,” May says. “It was the place where everybody went for years and years.” So when Nicholson locked up on September 29, 2007—closing the doors on a cassette tape collection, quirky bumper stickers, and countless trophies (some won by the bar’s softball team; others donated by patrons ready to part with their children’s participation awards)—the community truly felt a loss.
Now: Whether you find a seat at the bar or take over multiple tables in the dining space, you’ll probably see 20- and 30-somethings in ski boots, hiking boots, or designer cowboy boots chatting about the day’s adventures outside or at the Outlets. But more than likely, there are also a handful of folks in your midst, perhaps with less or grayer hair, reminiscing about their days at the old Old Dillon Inn.
“We’re recreating a place where good memories were made,” de la Torre says. “To continue this incredible legacy, to see all of the people coming back to remember the laughs and the times that were shared in this one special place, it is a total honor to be here. We’re bringing history back.”
