Golden Burro Café - Leadville, CO
Oct 16, 2022
Written By: H.Couch
Today while out adventuring in the mountain town of Leadville, we found an unexpected surprise. An all plant based/vegan restaurant called the Golden Burro Café.
It was time for lunch and trying to figure where to eat can be a bit of a complication. But not today! How to choose from a full menu of hamburgers, Chick’n sandwiches, tacos al pastor and nachos. At first we were going to order the BLT with house made tofu bacon. After talking with the hostess, I changed to a Chick’n sandwich and the soup of the day, creamy butternut squash bisque. A family member that was with us tried the cheeseburger with the tofu bacon and said that it was very good. In fact, I think that he is looking at plant based food in a whole different light after that.
While we were waiting for our order, we chatted a little with the owner. We asked how he came up with having a plant based restaurant, in what seems like a very random remote town. Leadville sits at 10,200 ft in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It isn’t the most common tourist spot between nearby Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Vail. Anyways, the owner was saying that he and his wife had gone vegan/plant based about 12 years ago. His wife had watched a TV story about President Clinton going vegan, after his heart attack, in an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The couple started to think more about what they had listened to and said our health needs some help, so we should try this. Going vegan can be good for our health, the environment and the animals. So starting a vegan restaurant wasn’t even a question after their first idea of a smoothie shop.
The food was good and the atmosphere of the old kitchenette style restaurant filled with local historical pictures was right up our alley. Today’s restaurant find was a true gem. If you are ever traveling through Leadville, please check out the Golden Burro Café.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
