‘Upscale casual’ restaurant to replace Estes’ Dunraven Inn

ESTES PARK — The owner of four Longmont dining spots plans to bring what he calls an “upscale casual modern American restaurant” to a resort on the north shore of Lake Estes by Memorial Day weekend, filling a space that had been occupied until early this month by an iconic Italian eatery.

The Dunraven Inn, which opened in 1972 along Colorado Highway 66 near the Beaver Meadows entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, moved to a space in the Estes Park Resort at 1700 Big Thompson Ave. in 2020, but owners Andy and Cindy Morgan opted to close their restaurant for good on March 2.

Taking its place will be Ember, the latest venture of Sean Gafner and his Gafner Hospitality Group, which runs The Roost, Jefe’s Tacos & Tequila, Swaylo’s Tiki Restaurant & Bar and 99 Bar Saloon Burgers & Bourbon in Longmont.

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Before coming to Colorado, Gafner, who along with wife Rebecca were 2023 Boulder County Business Hall of Fame inductees, ran a catering business for 18 years in California. “So I’m really comfortable with upscale fine dining,” he said, “and I’m kind of having that itch to throw my chef’s coat on again” at Ember.

When the Morgans decided to close the Dunraven Inn, one of the resort’s owners, Patrick Sullivan, contacted Gafner.

“He’s from Longmont and had been following what we’ve been doing there,” Gafner said. “He reached out to me and said he thought it would be a great fit for us.”

One reason for the great fit was the $5.5 million renovation that Phoenix-based Pacific Hotels and Resorts is doing at the 11-acre Estes Park Resort, said Austen Bierl, the company’s chief operating officer.

“We are completely renovating the space. It’ll look totally different,” said Bierl. “We’ll bring a mountain contemporary flair to it.”

Renovation of each of the 54 rooms at the resort is 50% complete, he said, adding that 30 luxury cabins have been added adjacent to the hotel, which will also add a 2,500-square-foot ballroom, open-air pavilion and spa.

“We want this to be more of a destination within Estes Park where our guests can eat, sleep, drink and play,” Bierl said.

The core of Ember will be a 5,000-square-foot restaurant with custom-built tufted leather seats, but Gafner said it can be expanded into the event spaces if needed, even to the picnic tables and Adirondack chairs along the lakeshore.

“All in all, there’s about 15,000 square feet we can use,” Gafner said. “It just depends on how you chop it up.”

Gafner has employed a team of four directors to run Ember, including a culinary director from the Greenbriar Inn, the longtime fine-dining establishment at the mouth of Lefthand Canyon north of Boulder.

He’ll employ “right around 100” people for Ember, and offered staff positions to all employees of the former Dunraven Inn.

“Our food will be a completely new concept, but we kept the Dunraven management team on, including a sous chef and event coordinator,” Gafner said. “I never really dined at the Dunraven, but they had some really amazing people working for them.”

What Gafner missed was a half-century of Estes Park lore at the Dunraven Inn. The Morgans purchased the inn in 2011 and moved it nine years later to the Estes Park Resort after being unable to successfully negotiate the terms of buying the building on Colorado 66.

But financial and personal issues led the Morgans to write an open letter that appeared in the Estes Park Trail Gazette and Estes Park News, announcing that they were closing the Dunraven “with a very heavy heart.”

“For many, The Dunraven has been more than just a restaurant; it has been a gathering place, a source of many cherished memories and a symbol of our town’s character,” Andy Morgan wrote. “Its warm ambiance, delicious cuisine, and most importantly its welcoming staff have made it a beloved destination for locals and visitors alike.

“Over the last several years, I have struggled to find passion for something I once loved. The numerous challenges that the town has faced with COVID, fires and floods has affected me deeply. … I learned many things about myself and the biggest realization was the damage that the Dunraven was placing on me emotionally and physically. Therefore, I made it my goal to part from Dunraven in 2024. Unfortunately, this happened earlier than expected.”

Morgan also wrote that “we have been faced with the unfortunate reality that the economic challenges of recent times have taken their toll. Like many small businesses in our town and around the nation, The Dunraven has struggled to weather the storms of uncertainty, rising cost, and shifting consumer habits.”

Gafner hopes to build some new memories for Estes Park visitors and residents at Ember.

“I write all the recipes for all the restaurants,” Gafner said. “I know going up there the last nine years as a visitor that people want things like wild game. So we’ll have things like elk tenderloin, venison and bison. But we’ll also have things like lamb chops from the Buckner Ranch in Longmont.

“We’re trying to highlight Colorado and what Colorado does well.”

Ember also will feature “appetizers people really love” from his Longmont restaurants, Gafner said, including such items as mango shrimp from Swaylo, ahi wontons from The Roost, tacos from Jefe’s and fried chicken sandwiches from 99 Bar Saloon.

Gafner, his wife and their four children made Longmont their home in 2015 after Sean had built an enviable record in Northern California’s restaurant industry, first in Sacramento and then in Redding at the Tierra Oaks Country Club restaurant and then at top-tier View 202, a downtown eatery with sweeping views of Mount Shasta and the Sacramento River.

Once in Longmont, they opened The Roost in 2015, followed by Jefe’s in 2016, Swaylo’s in 2018 in a former Outback steakhouse, and 99 Bar Saloon in 2023.

At Ember, “we’ll do mostly high-end things but be still casual and still approachable,” said Gafner. “We’ll put on our fancy pants a little bit. This feels like something we are positioned to do really well.”