The Toast of Gunbarrel
by Michelle Gilles

When Leslie and Kevin Middleton were looking for a place to open their dream restaurant, Leslie went to a psychic, who said she saw them buying one in the area. At the time, they were considering what used to be Flannigan’s restaurant in Niwot.

“The psychic said the one we were looking at wasn’t it,” Kevin says. “I said ‘Psychic, shmychic,’ but it’s kind of ironic how it turned out. She predicted how it is.”

Indeed, the restaurant they were considering wasn’t the one they ended up buying. The one they chose actually chose them, Leslie says, because “it just felt like the right place to be.”

After living in Gunbarrel 12 years, Leslie felt it was lacking a place that served up a nice Martini and a good meal close to home. So when one of their best friends told them about a restaurant in move-in condition that was for sale in the Gunbarrel Shopping Center, Leslie had to take a look. At first glance she thought the space—once occupied by Mia Trattoria—was too small. But when Kevin saw it, he knew it could work. Within a half hour of touring the space together, the couple signed the lease.

Although the location had the basic infrastructure necessary for a restaurant, it took vision and elbow grease to make it the welcoming, sophisticated neighborhood grill the Middletons envisioned. So they painted the walls a warm red-brick color and hung contemporary black-and-white photographs of Western scenes. They arranged a dozen cozy tables around the restaurant and suspended blown-glass lights over the stainless-steel bar. With the addition of a couple of bistro tables out front and a blues and jazz soundtrack, their restaurant was complete.

Five months later, Cafe Blue, named after their beloved border collie, was ready to face the public. But Kevin and Leslie had another hurdle to overcome: opening night.

“We had a practice dinner and it was almost a disaster,” says Kevin. “We had just gotten the health department approval that day at noon—until you have approval, you can’t open anything. We were in a holding pattern.”

Once the authorization came through, they had just six hours to prepare for the diners whose reservations they had carefully paced out over the course of the evening. Leslie and a little libation helped entertain the customers while Kevin worked out the kinks. A huge rainstorm had exposed a leak in the roof where the new exhaust hood had been installed, and the kitchen was flooded. But the obstacles of opening day are now a distant memory. Today Cafe Blue is the talk of the neighborhood, with a recent rave review from a local food critic and a people’s choice award naming it runner-up for best restaurant in Gunbarrel.

Shades of Cincinnati

The reason for the buzz begins with the Middletons’ menu, which includes eclectic seafood dishes; a delightful mix of warming comfort foods such as butternut squash and apple soup on Cajun meatloaf; blackened New York strip steak with blue cheese bourbon sauce; and their signature Cincinnati chili. This type of chili, also known as Skyline chili after a Cincinnati restaurant of that name, is a dish Leslie enjoyed at least once a week when she was growing up in Ohio. Cafe Blue follows a recipe handed down to Leslie by her mother. Though the restaurant has given it a few secret tweaks, it is still traditional Cincinnati chili, served over pasta with grated cheese or pumped up with onions and red kidney beans.

Leslie, a graduate of the Cooking School of the Rockies, is also Cafe Blue’s pastry chef. She makes everything from scratch, including a chocolate Kahlua cake with white-chocolate mousse, and the house favorite—flourless chocolate cake with white chocolate-bourbon sauce.

Kevin, who is the chef, favors fresh fish, house-smoked chicken, and greens from the farmers’ market. Fresh ingredients, light sauces and a nod to the seasons are his guiding lights. His background includes cooking for a well-known but now defunct Boulder seafood restaurant called Salmon Run, which was owned by restaurateur Pete Brophy.

“That was my first cooking job,” Kevin says. “They had a passion for cooking seafood, and I love that.” Kevin then went to work for another iconic Boulder restaurant, Café Gondolier, where he cooked for 14 years. By then he felt it was time to get out on his own. “Always, in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to do a restaurant.”

Now they have overcome all the challenges a new restaurant faces, and Leslie and Kevin believe this is the right place to be. Their school-age kids drop in, the dog sitter comes by for a snack, and their family, friends and increasing number of friendly faces make the leap of owning a restaurant truly rewarding.

“There isn’t a day that I don’t come in here and thank God I can do this—building a restaurant, making a menu,” says Kevin. “It’s a testimony that dreams can come true.” l

Cafe Blue American Grill, 5280 Spine Road #103 in the Gunbarrel Shopping Center, is open Mon - Thurs 11 am - 9 pm, Fri 11 am - 10 pm, and Sat 4 pm - 10 pm. Reservations accepted; walk-ins welcome. Phone: 303-530-4345.

Michelle Gilles, a freelance writer for several local publications, specializes in food, home and garden stories. She and her husband live in Boulder.

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