Roy’s Last Shot

Barbara Lawlor

02/15/2007 - Over 20 years ago, Roy and Barb Stewart left Nederland after running the Edelweiss Restaurant, where the Mexican Grill is now located. Their life’s journey took them on a long and winding road that led them right back to the mountains.

  Whether it was Niwot’s Curse that brought them back or just strange twists of fate, Roy says this is it; they have reached the last stop on the trail. And, thus, he has named his restaurant, formerly Pete’s Beaver Park Inn, The Last Shot.

  With the Stewarts comes over 4,000 shot glasses, paintings of cowboys, elephants, Indians and cats, large palm-type plants, a cow named Norma Jean, a bunch of African pigmy goats and some chickens.

  Nobody will be bored while they wait for their food. Roy and Barb will make sure there are plenty of attractions to entertain the kids and fascinate the adults.

   “Bring in a shot glass and I’ll trade you something for it,” says Roy, whose goal is to gain entry into the Guiness Book of World Records someday.

  Last week, as he talked to customers, Jeremiah Long tapped him on the shoulder and handed him three shot glasses from Texas. “Aw, thanks a lot,” said Roy. That’s what he’s talking about, the interaction with his patrons.

  Both Roy and Barb were army brats, growing up in Germany and then meeting in Aurora in 1967. Barb’s family had a cabin on Blue Spruce Road near the Nifty Nook restaurant, which became Pete’s. Barb remembers walking down the highway to get hot chocolate there, some 40 years ago.

  The couple married in 1971, and after spending some time in Germany they returned to Central City where they worked at the House of Chandelier, The Teller House and Crook’s Palace.

  Roy was becoming proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.

  In 1976, he ran a bar/restaurant in Denver that featured a Monday night throw-a-brick-through-a-televisioni-screen for those who were angry at Howard Cossell for not showing the Broncos.

   “If you bought a drink, you got a ticket and we would pull our one ticket every Monday night. We had an old broken tv and the ticket holder could throw a brick. Of course, you couldn’t do that nowadays, because of liability.”

  From there Roy and Barb followed the work, traveling from Conifer to Las Vega where Roy ran a gunfight set and worked at various casinos. They returned to Colorado and with Barb’s mom, Anna Picard, they opened the German/Swiss restaurant, the Edelweiss, in Nederland.

  It was hard times back then. Roy remembers that they had no car, no heat and no electricity.

  After about a year and a half, they left for Steamboat Springs. Their friend Eric Baker from the Pioneer Inn went with the Stewarts. Roy built up a reputation as a gourmet chef. He was wooed to Cape Cod and then to Peoria, Illinois where he helped set up riverboat gambling.

  But the spurious restaurant business drew him back to Vegas where he worked for the MGM Grand as executive chef.

  In the next seven years, Roy opened restaurants for people and began painting and wood burning, carving totems and scenery, finding his creative side.

  A year ago October they returned to Colorado, found a house near Pete’s and looked for a restaurant to run. They looked at the Stage Stop when it was for sale, but that didn’t work out. When they discovered Pete’s was for sale, they broke all their piggy banks and begged local banks for a loan. The deal came together in January.

  Last week, Roy lugged his plants into the dining room, hung his paintings and built a display case for his shot glasses.

  He says he loves to drink but he’s given up the habit, he took his last shot. One of his paintings on the wall depicts a gunslinger pointing a pistol, with a Last Shot badge.

  Since Roy and Barb opened people have brought in at least 30 shot glasses to add to his collection. But, says Roy, it is the food that will keep them coming.

  The new menu will have feature a variety of salads and fresh vegetables, three kinds of steak, three kinds of fish five different Philly sandwiches and five wraps. There will be specials like Chicken Angelo made with artichoke hearts and mushrooms in a lemon-lime sauce.

  “I’m gonna give you what you can’t get up here anywhere else,” he says.

  Roy also plans to open an art gallery in the back, a place to display local’s jewelry, beadwork and paintings.

  “This is going to be a roadside attraction in the summer,” says Roy. “I want to be a good neighbor and give the locals somewhere to come to.”