John LaConte/Vail Daily
The Blu Cow restaurant has been given until April 15 to be completely out of the building, says owner Simone Larese, making April 10 a tentative last day for the restaurant.
The restaurant is located in the Red Lion building, and has been in that location since 2014. The Blu Cow restaurant has been in business in one form or another in Eagle County since 1967.
Larese’s father, Ernst, was an Austrian immigrant who moved to Vail in the 1960s, part of the original wave of European immigrants who helped build the town. He invented a meal called the Swiss hot dog, a unique meal that was invented in Vail and is now known worldwide.
“Since I announced our closing on social media, I’ve been getting a huge amount of messages from people from all over the world who have memories of eating Swiss hot dogs with generations of their families, and have now started bringing in their children and grandchilden” Larese said. “I wish the town would just condemn the whole Bridge Street and contract out these restaurants like it does with the restaurant at the Vail Golf Club. There needs to be radical change, and I’m happy to be that person who will be known as having tried my absolute hardest. I am from here, after all.”
Larese says she has attempted to negotiate her lease with the building’s owner, Red Lion LLC., which is a different entity than the Red Lion restaurant. Red Lion restaurant co-owner Rod Linafelter also recently announced that his restaurant does not intend to remain in the Red Lion building if it is redesigned according to a plan currently making its way through the Vail Design Review Board.
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“When these Vail institutions are gone, they’re gone for good,” Larese said.
Larese said there has been a false narrative that she could stay in that location “if she wanted,” and she has other options of places to do business.
But that’s not true, she said.
In a letter from the building owner, Larese was told that there was a rumor going around that she had “found a new location” and will be “moving after the ski season.”
“None of that is true,” Larese said. “I have been approached by other landlords but nobody has made an offer that’s even close to a fair deal for such a unique landmark business.”
The letter also says the redesign of the Red Lion building is slated to start in April and that “residents of Vail that have seen and know the plan are very supportive of what we are proposing.”
Larese says the opposite is true, and the Vail residents she has talked to are not at all supportive of the plan to redesign the Red Lion building. She agrees the building needs a remodel, but that could be done while keeping the existing businesses there, she said.
The redesign aims to add high-end retail space where restaurant space is currently, along with the creation of a music venue.
“A landlord that cared about the heart and soul of Vail would just do a standard remodel on this building and not kick out these iconic businesses,” she said.
Larese says the music venue is not needed in a Vail, especially considering Dobson Ice Arena is currently undergoing a $55 million remodel so it can be used as a music venue.
“Music is always being used to justify a loss of the real and important culture that’s been here for over half a century,” Larese said. “To lose an establishment that serves a special type of food that’s unique to this area is a massive disservice and a cultural gutting to all of Vail, its people, and its future.”
