Boulder Cork steakhouse caters to changing trends

BOULDER – It’s not that Alan Teran isn’t busy. He’s got a remodeling project to work on; he’s eager to take up a hammer, as he did when the roof was replaced and when new bathrooms were built. But unlike every other restaurateur I’ve interviewed in the last 10 or however many years it’s been, Alan Teran relaxes with a cup of coffee and talks without interruption.

It’s just that the Boulder Cork has worked since it opened as part of the Cork and Cleaver chain in 1969 and certainly has worked since Teran took over its ownership in 1981. He’s constantly improving the building and the decor and the menu and the wine list, true, but thanks to the longevity of his staff and the importance he places on them, he’s one restaurateur who actually talks about a lack of stress in his life.

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Teran joined the Cork and Cleaver fresh out of college in Dayton, Ohio, with a degree in marketing. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he recalls.

When a friend told him that “two guys out of Dayton” were looking for someone to operate some of their restaurants in the Midwest, he gave it a try. He came to train at the Boulder location and in Colorado Springs.

In its heyday, the Cork and Cleaver had 70 restaurants in 33 states. Boulder was the sixth. In 1975, The Mead Group bought 51 percent of the chain, and Teran came to Boulder to run the company. When Cork and Cleaver sold out to The Chart House and became one of its divisions in the late 1970s, Teran became division president. But in 1981 he decided to leave the company because of a difference of opinion about some business direction decisions. In parting, he bought the Boulder restaurant.

“You’d never build here today,” he says of the location at 3295 30th St., between Valmont and the Diagonal. “But long-term, it’s become a destination.” Unlike other parts of town we might mention, parking is certainly not an issue, with an entire shopping center’s lots at his disposal.

Cork and Cleaver began as a steak house, and The Boulder Cork still serves more steak than anything else. Its pepper steak has been named best steak in Boulder by the carnivore I am most closely related to.

But the trick to staying in business for so long, according to Teran, is constant improvement and change, and the Cork’s menu reflects its Boulder audience. “Twenty years ago, we had steak, prime rib and maybe one fresh fish,” he recalls. But, 20 years ago, where in Colorado could you get fresh fish? Today the menu features almost as many seafood and vegetarian entrees as beef and lamb entrees. Nevertheless, Teran says, “Fifty percent of the items we sell are beef.” It’s just that when he took over in 1981, 85 percent was beef. And, he adds, “The food is better today than it was 19 years ago, and the wine inventory is better.”

Something that hasn’t changed in the last 19 years, and a huge part of the Cork’s success, according to its owner, is top management. Donna Dooley has managed the restaurant for 22 years and Jim Smailer (who can take credit for the best crab cakes in America, according to another authority to whom I am closely related) has been its chef for 19 years. Both are partners with Teran in the restaurant. “I really believe that if you keep your people, and you work together as a team, you do a better job, and you keep your customers,” Teran said.

Originally built for the Cork and Cleaver, the building is “always in the process of being remodeled,” says Teran. Yet it retains its cozy, comfortable, Southwestern look. That comfort is another factor in the restaurant’s success.

“We’re not saying we’re a five-star restaurant,” he says. “We appeal to a broader market.” Appealing to a large business audience “and tons of locals,” the Cork offers a mid-priced menu (dinner entrees run in the $17 to $25 range), as well as a children’s menu. And it offers consistently good food. “When guests come here, they can count on it being like the last time they were here,” he says. Call the Cork for lunch or dinner at (303) 443-9505.