How Fort Collins came to eat the way it does: the people, migrations and accidents that shaped the plate.
Key eras
1860s-1909, fort, farms and the first bar
Fort Collins grew from an army post into a farm and livestock town; the block that is now The Exchange began as a livestock exchange where cattle and sheep changed hands. College Avenue was laid out 140 feet wide, and in 1909 the Town Pump opened beside it, the city's first bar and still pouring today.
1933-1976, counters and institutions
The Silver Grill opened its Walnut Street counter in 1933 and built the giant cinnamon roll into a civic emblem. Vern's Place started frying chicken up the road in LaPorte in 1946, CSU students founded the Fort Collins Food Co-op in 1972, and the Larimer County Farmers' Market began its Saturday run in 1976, now past its 50th season.
1988-2000s, the brewing revolution
Everything changed in a two-year window: CooperSmith's opened on Old Town Square in 1989 as the city's first brewpub, Odell Brewing began pouring 90 Shilling the same year, and a home operation founded in a basement grew into New Belgium Brewing, whose Fat Tire amber ale carried the Fort Collins name onto shelves across the country.
2010s-today, the maker era
The old agricultural fabric got a second life: Ginger and Baker restored the Feed and Grain building on Linden Street in the River District, Jessup Farm turned a settler farmstead into an artisan village, and The Exchange stacked shipping-container kitchens into a licensed plaza. Former New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert now brews four-hectolitre one-offs at Purpose, and Odell has added its own urban winery.
Immigrant influences
- Mexican and Tex-Mex: Green chile is the city's default sauce, smothering potato and breakfast burritos from Big City Burrito to Illegal Pete's, with the original Rio Grande cantina pouring margaritas on Mountain Avenue since the 1980s.
- Vietnamese: Young's Cafe has long anchored South College Avenue, making Vietnamese cooking part of the city's everyday rotation.
- Nepali and Sherpa: Dawa and Tashi Sherpa, from the Solukhumbu Valley, built Mt Everest Cafe in 2004 and Himalayan Bistro in 2016, bringing momos and Himalayan curries to south Fort Collins.
- Middle Eastern: Petra Grill carves certified halal shawarma by CSU, while Olive Tree International Market stocks the halal butchery and Arabic pantry the community shops from.
- Thai: Cafe de Bangkok on West Elizabeth Street keeps khao soi and Massaman curry in the campus-district rotation, with one of the city's deepest vegetarian lists.
Signature innovations
- The brewery taproom as civic square: New Belgium and Odell built campuses people treat as parks
- Fat Tire amber ale, brewed from a Fort Collins basement onto shelves nationwide
- The giant cinnamon roll: Silver Grill's 1933 counter made breakfast a destination
- The Exchange: a licensed common-consumption plaza built from shipping containers
- The Fox Den's no-waste cafe model: thrifted mugs, jar deposits, bulk bean refills