Chautauqua Dining Hall

Chautauqua Dining Hall

After my hike to the Royal Arch I needed to find something to eat. Luckily I found a great place just a few blocks away! The Chautauqua Dining Hall has been around since 1898 and had a unique menu that was perfect for a post hike meal.

While the building is historic it doesn’t have that old building grime that sometimes follows the old buildings through time. The Dining Hall is clean with not a single thing out of place. I could eat off the floor I bet. (Don’t judge me) There were at least two fireplaces that I saw and an impressive hardwood floor. It was a really cool building.

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The Food

Now to the important part…the Food! I got there just as they were opening at 11 am and they were in their brunch service with options from breakfast and lunch. I decided to go with lunch because they had some really unique offerings.

Elk Chili

To start, Elk chili. I ordered this chili thinking it would be a small cup that I could have as a side to my sandwich. (They offer as a side but I ordered it extra) This chili was pretty amazing and it came out in a very large bowl with two pieces of cornbread on the side.

The chili was a bit sweeter than typical beef chili that I have had. The red style chili had chopped red and green peppers (maybe jalapeno?), onions and generous amounts of Elk meat. It also came with melted aged cheddar, cilantro, and crema on top.

I loved this chili. It was thick with a ton of meat in it and the sweet flavor mixed perfectly with a bit of spice to make for one of the better chili’s I have ever had. The cornbread was also delicious. If I have one complaint it was that the cornbread was so soft I couldn’t really dip it in the chili and had to eat it on its own. But It was delicious so I don’t know if that is really a complaint.

Bison Pastrami Rueben

After finishing about half the chili I realized I had ordered way too much food. Next up for me though was the Bison Rueben sandwich. This was made with Bison pastrami, swiss, house made sauerkraut, their special sauce on marble rye. I ordered a side salad with it.

The salad was really fresh and I liked the dressing which was a red wine-agave nectar vinaigrette. It was sweet and delicious. The Rueben was also really good. The Bison pastrami was super lean and heavily peppered, which I like. The special sauce was a good mix of sweet with the peppery and savory bison. I really liked how the flavors played off each other on this sandwich. The sauerkraut also added a nice texture but I didn’t pick up the flavors of that as much.

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This was a great meal. I couldn’t finish nearly half of it and am excited to have it again soon! If you find yourself in the Boulder, give the Chautauqua Dining hall a shot. They are located at 900 Baseline Road just a few blocks from Chautauqua Park.

I have added this restaurant and all of the restaurants I have visited to my interactive map that you can find here. If you have a suggestion for a restaurant for me to try feel free to email me at fatmanlittletrails@gmail.com. You can also follow me on any of the below social media platforms. Bon Appetit!

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