El Moro Spirits and Tavern

I’d say one of the best restaurants in Durango. Everything on the menu is spicy though. I got the salmon with wasabi risotto and it was delicious, not too spicy, and I am definitely not a fan of spicy food. The drink I had was SO good. The cocktail menu is extensive and very unique. Expensive though, so not a place I could go a lot.

We came in because we read many good comments about the quality of their cocktails. But we were very disappointed. The Manhattan; there was no bourbon, and it tasted like NyQuil. The Negroni; not drinkable — full of sugar!
Also, a good bartender should know how to make good drink fitted with various customers instead of what he thinks a drink it should be.
The atmosphere is nice though. If you want Hipster cocktails, you’re probably in the right place. Don Draper would be very disappointed.

A very popular establishment on the main street of Durango. They have a extensive drinks list and the wait staff really know the alcohol. I was expecting the drinks to be good but didn’t realize the food would be such a high standard. We shared the chicken lollipops which had a sublime chili sauce. I had the lamb burger which was succulent and delicious and my husband was a fan of the new york steak which was cooked to perfection and had a coffee rub.

I was in Durango for business & this was one of the places recommended to visit for good food & drinks. I ordered the chicken lollipops for an appetizer and it was delicious. The sauce was sticky with a tiny kick, it was paired with a sauce that was perfect. For my entrée I ordered the porterhouse steak & that as well was delicious. (Could of been seasoned better, hence the 4 star) It was cooked perfectly to a medium rare with an herb butter & micro greens on top of it. The list of alcoholic drinks are a bit intimidating but the bartender makes great recommendations, you should stop by if your in town.

Dave, the GM, is a great mixologist. Go to him! He can make you anything on the menu, or a custom cocktail. I was not expecting such skills in Durango, CO. I’m impressed. I haven’t had the food, but the drinks made by Dave are the bomb! Happy Chicago drinker here.
The staff is super friendly and welcoming.

Wonderful place. Great cocktails, friendly bartenders and staff, and really nice food.
Best Manhattan I’ve had.
Cauliflower appetizer is amazing. Scallops very fresh and delicious, among other great dishes.

My family and I have been wanting to try this place for a while now after living here for 3 years. We eat out constantly and were excited to change it up. The host was very friendly and sat us right away. The food and especially the beer selection looked excellent. However we never got the chance to enjoy this place as we were ignored for over 15 minutes at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. Not that busy and as open and small as this place is, hard to imagine this wasn’t intentional, especially as my friend with us tried to flag the waiter down and was ignored. We walked out. As we’re local, we might give it another shot, might not.

This is our second time here and the food is amazing. I had the El Moro burger and it is hands down the best burger I have ever had. Juicy and well made! My wife had the meat and cheese platter and she loved it so much we had to come back on our trip back home to Las Vegas from my Dad’s house in Farmington, NM. If you are in Durango be sure to stop by, this place is the best. Ambience is great (R.E.M. and Morrissey? Yes please!!) and the staff is super friendly, make sure to buy the kitchen a round while you’re here, they deserve it!

Monday night — not very busy. Brittany provided great service and input on the menu. Pointed me to a Xengu beer (dark lager from Brazil) which was delightful. Our table shared a scotch egg which was a hit — I’ve had others at various restaurants and this was close to the best. Our table had the bacon chard pasta, El Moro burger, Lamb burger and the cuban. All were shared and were tasty. The bacon chard was ok but i was expecting a heavier bacon flavor. The cuban was good but if you are a fan of true cubano sandwiches you will not be impressed — the pickles had a distinct and different taste and it was lacking in yellow mustard. As a sandwich it was fine — it just wasn’t a cuban. The lamb burger with beet was tasty and cooked as requested and the El Moro burger was big and juicy.
Overall — we had a great experience and it didn’t break the bank so we’ll be back. The bar is wonderful and the atmosphere is great. Black and white movie being projected on the brick wall by the bar was cool!

Amazing! Had the Breakfast of Champions (an adult beverage with bacon whiskey, an egg, a strip of bacon, among other things) and it was fantastic. Had the Guido for brunch and it was superb! The staff is warm, inviting, and simply put.lovely. It’s a must — add it to your list!

Well gosh darnit to heck that this place isn’t in Albuquerque. This is seriously the hands-​down best place I’ve ever eaten for brunch. We had the AM Poutine and it was TO DIE FOR. Like, hey, New Mexico, someone please get this on a menu ASAP! Fries smothered in sauage and gravy, cheddar cheese, and two eggs your way?! I need it in my mouth.
Also, the cocktails were fabulous. I don’t think I could order them anywhere else. The wait was a tad long, but so worth it. Get a cocktail or two to distract you from the time you’re waiting. I will go here every single time I’m in Durango from now on!

Everything was so right.
#1 — Jerai was awesome. The best bartender! I usually get a scotch because I’m watching my carbs, but I have longed for a cocktail, especially after looking over the list. It wasn’t busy, so I explained the situation, and since Jerai got my flavor profile, he made THE MOST AWESOME DRINK. Loved it.
#2 — The meat parade (thanks for dubbing it that, Jerai). Again with the low carb, I got the ribeye with no sides, and it was PERFECTLY cooked (medium rare, of course), and the seasoning rocked. Did get the tomatoes. Very nice.
#3 — Meat Parade 2: Told Jerai I didn’t care what it cost, I wanted some lamb bacon on the side. Worth it. So good. Oh, my, goodness! Ate it on its own. Ate it on the steak. Ate it with my cocktail. It was SO GOOD.
#4 — I love that we could order PBRs for the kitchen! And that they could literally toot their own horn in thanks.
#5 — Fellow patrons, the bar décor, the bar-​made bitters, and just the general vibe (plus, whiskey poured through beef marrow bones?!) mean that I totally want to come back again!
SIDE NOTE: After losing 85+ pounds this year, so far, via the low carb/​high fat keto diet, I’m motivated to keep going, but that doesn’t mean I don’t really appreciate a kitchen and bartender and staff that go out of their way to make losing this weight so much damn fun. If the staff reads this, THANK YOU for such a great meal and afternoon!

We came here for dinner around 9:00pm on a Saturday night and were seated right away. Our waiter was awesome– super great service, friendly and took a picture of us with their hanging picture frame. We both ordered some beers which were recommended by our water… our beers (which I can’t remember the name of, of course) were really good. They have a lot of options, so you’ll definitely be satisfied in that regard. We ordered the Gyro plate with fries. The Gyro was excellent– instead of strips of lamb they did meatballs which I thought was different. The Gyro isn’t huge, it’s just right. Their fries were so good! I loved the atmosphere, very unique. The lighting was cool and I liked the projector they had going with old school movies. Bathrooms were very clean! I’ll be back again!

My husband and I had a delicious brunch here last Sunday! For one, the place has that very of-​the-​moment ode to the 19^th century design: exposed brick walls, Edison light bulbs and hard wood floors. Some of it, I found to be a bit much (empty paint frames, cheese grater lamp shades). They have a full bar and creative menu of different versions of the Bloody Mary. My husband order the house and was not disappointed. I got a coffee and the Ham and Cheese breakfast sandwich which I ordered on a house-​made biscuit. It completely hit the spot. My husband got the traditional English breakfast. They have an appetizing selection of different types of «Bennedictions» but we were a little too hung-​over from the night before such a heavy first meal.

This is now my #1 favorite restaurant in Durango.
We ended up at El Moro by accident; May Palace was closed so we wandered down Main Street until we saw the sign and decided to try it. Boy were we in for a treat! There weren’t too many people inside so we had our pick of tables, and our server was super nice and informative. We were provided with water right away (awesome!) and had some time to look over the menu.
After much debate we decided to start with the Scotch egg and the Onion soup. Our waitress made the Scotch egg sound so delectable that we had to try it. And it was AMAZING. I’ve never had one before but I’m definitely going to come back to El Moro and order it again. It’s basically a medium boiled egg covered in ground pork and fried, then topped with pea greens and some yummy mustard. DELICIOUS. It was tasty, flavorful and not greasy at all! ⁵⁄₅ for sure. The onion soup paled in comparison to the egg but I will say the bread covered in Gruyère was yummy. I never like the croûton-​y cheese covered bread that is traditional to a French Onion Soup, but this time I did! The onions and broth were good but didn’t have the depth of flavor that was expected.
For main courses I ordered the Cuban sandwich, my mom had the burger, and my dad had the sausage/​hot dog. Each sandwich can be accompanied with fries or a salad. My advice: Get the SALAD. This isn’t a «Be Healthy» pitch, but seriously the salad was huge and delicious and the dressing was great! As for the sandwiches, the Cuban and Burger were spot on. I loved the flavor of the pork melded with cheese and perfectly toasted bread. They were a little heavy on the mayo but I was able to scrape that off no problem. My mom thoroughly enjoyed the burger which was grass-​fed and cooked to a perfect medium. Lots of veggies piled on top too! My dad was a bit sad about his plate because the sausage was quite salty and the bread was nothing special… but we shared and the awesomeness of the appetizers and the other two sandwiches made up for it :)
In the end excellent service (our waitress explained each course thoroughly), phenomenal food, reasonable prices, great portions, and awesome ambiance (nice pictures of old Durango). I will be back as soon as possible!

Five Star! I had the Lamb Gyro with the salad. You can tell that this is a details oriented establishment. The salad was a perfect oil & vinegar on mixed greens. The lamb gyro was magnificent! On top of it all, the bar is as good as you’ll find anywhere. They have everything & make a lot of unusual stuff. I had an old fashion with cherry house-​made bitters!!! OMG, take me to heaven now, because I’ve had the best old fashion I’ll ever have!

I had what can only be described as one of the best meals of my life last night. I’ve traveled around the world, to over 30 countries, and across the United States. My husband and I were taking a road trip and stopped in to this restaurant only knowing it had some great history. I had no idea what the menu looked like so it was a bit risky.
We ordered the beet and apple salad to start, which came with a curry vinegarette. It was such an explosion of flavors, even my husband who is not a salad man LOVED it. So interesting. For dinner I ordered the pastrami sliced wild salmon with risotto and asparagus. Somehow, they created a dish of your typical salmon and risotto that pretty much tastes like a pastrami sandwich on rye with mustard. The risotto was flavored with caraway and gave it that rye flavor, the asparagus was in a mustard sauce that was incredible.
My husband ordered the bacon and Swiss chard tagliatelle. They make their own pasta and it was perfectly cooked. The bacon is cured IN HOUSE as well and it was just heavenly. I could go on forever.
I love this place and if you don’t go, you’re missing out on culinary greatness!
Thanks to our waiter/​food enthusiast DAVE for giving us such great recommendations and just being so cool.

WoW!
Old timely saloon from the turn of the century
We are driving cross country from Miami to San Diego and this was by a long shot Best food ever!
Our waiter, Dave, suggested a few things that sounded great… BUT, they were surprisingly BETTER! Seriously ?! YES
We started with Dave’s suggestion of the beet & apple salad. (I don’t do beet). It was out of this world explosions of flavors in our mouths!
Entrée was Bacon & Swiss Chard Tagliatelle.(I would never had ordered this), but Dave said its to die for… It was! Unbelievable Beyond description! Melt in your mouth
My wife’s entrée was equally wonderful. Pastrami spiced wild Salmon… best salmon
The chocolate dessert was CHOCOLATE BY DEATH!
I’ll be baaaaack

What a pleasant find in Durango… El Moro Tavern! The atmosphere is pretty cool and laid back with a wall-​to-​wall spirits selection. Make sure to show the kitchen the respect they deserve with ordering them a round of PBR!
We had the Beet and Apple salad which was delicious but I would highly recommend getting the Meats and Cheese! They are wonderful and local!
I had the Shrimp and Grits which had great heat/​flavor to it but the fried grits were amazing and had such flavor to my palate! I would definitely recommend this item! We also had the Seared Scallops which were good.

Best bar in town for interesting and tasty drinks. They have a phenomenal liquor selection including some hard-​to-​find bottles like Milagro’s Special Reserve Silver tequila and Peach Street’s Jackelope and Jenny pear gin.
The bartenders are always great. The ambiance is phenomenal (I especially love the ceiling fans and the bathrooms — I’ve investigated them all!)
The food is a bit lackluster and not particularly memorable, but the concepts are good and they use a lot of local foods (two thumbs up!!). Maybe some day I will find some items on the menu that really win me over, but for now the drinks are more than making up for the food. They even have some unique beers that you just can’t find at the liquor store!
Good service. Beautiful restaurant. Amazing drinks. Five stars!!!