It is so nice to be open

Welcome to our first official post-construction/post-opening/post-chaos blog!  It is so nice to be able to provide an update that isn’t bad news.  We have been open for about 3 weeks, and many of you have already become regulars at CB’s Tavern.  First and foremost, thank you so much for your business and your support.  The response has been overwhelming, and our best advertising has been through “small town social media” (i.e. word of mouth).  If you haven’t already, tell your friends about us.

After only a few weeks, we have noticed some specific trends in our consumers’ choices.  Who would have thought that our Onion Rings would be one of the most popular food items?  The beer batter is freshly made every day, so that helps.  In fact, that is the general philosophy for ALL of our food.  Callaways has been providing us with fresh meat at the drop of a dime, because we have definitely gone through a lot of beef lately (you carnivores, you).  Some of our other popular items: buffalo wings, Pat's pies, southwest eggrolls, and burgers (complete with Rocking W Cheese). 

We also take pride in expanding the adult beverage palates of Delta – and most of the good stuff comes from our own backyard.  Although the usual staples (Coors and Bud) are widely consumed, many of patrons have taken a fondness to Dirty Hippie (dark wheat ale from Palisade on tap), Pinstripe Ale (malty red ale from Ska on tap), Nitro Milk Stout (popular stout from Left Hand that requires an aggressive pour), and Laughing Lab (Scottish ale from Bristol in the bottle).  Also, we feature a wide selection of local flavors in our spirits – Stranahan’s, Colorado Gold, and Peach Street Distillery just to name a few.  Garret Estates (out of Olathe) and Hardins (Hotchkiss) round out our growing wine selection (stay tuned for more wine options).

One big item that we want to make certain that everybody knows about is our official grand opening.  So… put this date in your calendar. 

I’ll wait for you to get a pen.

Ready?  Ok.  Our official Grand Opening will take place on Friday, June 29^th at 4:00 pm.  Join us for the festivities, complete with ribbon cutting and some fun surprises. 

We are in the process of setting up a consistent schedule of happenings for the future as well.  Here’s what we have so far…

• Happy Hour is 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Monday-Friday)
• Ladies’ Night is 6:00 pm – closing (Monday)

On deck, we have Pool League night on Wednesdays (still in the works) and Monday Night Football Bingo (once football season starts…duh).  Also, we will have specials for specific holidays and whatnot.  For example, we ran a 15% discount of all Father’s Day tickets as a salute to all the good dads out there.  We will keep you posted on these events as they come.

Speaking of keeping you posted, CB’s Tavern is everywhere on the interwebs.  Make certain that you are dialed in on all of our media avenues…

• Blog: http://cbstavern.blogspot.com (you know… the thing that you are reading now)
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CBsTavern
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CBsTavern
• FourSquare: https://foursquare.com/v/cbs-tavern/4fc787e11081c1440d98614c (try and become the “mayor” of CB’s by checking in every time)
• Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/cbs-tavern-delta (if you enjoyed your time, please leave a review)

We post regularly through these sites, so this is a helpful way to keep informed.  Or… you could just do it the old fashioned way: come on down and see for yourself!

That’s it for now.  Until then, we look forward to pouring you a cold one.  Cheers!

One year ago...

Looking over some of the old blog posts, I noticed that our very first update was posted on April 30, 2011 -- nearly one year ago.  And what a year it has been.  We should have named this blog "Blood, Sweat, and Beers" after everything that we have been through.  But everything has finally come to fruition, and we couldn't be more excited. 

The manual labor portion of our work is dwindling to a smaller and smaller list of tasks.  Pretty soon, we will have to shift gears and focus on operations.  This means hiring future CB's employees.  If you are interested in working for us, stop by and pick up an application.  We are going to begin hiring very soon, because we are *insert celebratory music here* opening soon!  Everybody can expect an opening day in May.

Yes, this blog has been the "boy who has cried wolf" several times.  But I swear -- this time it is for real!  Our biggest albatross around our neck has been that darn fire sprinkler system, and it is in its final stages of completion.  We are down to the nitty gritty work -- installing fixtures, trim, appliances, etc..  This is the type of work that moves at a much faster pace than crap tasks (like drywalling), so we should speed through them quickly.  Also, we purchased all of our kegging equipment (hoses, regulators, taps, shanks, etc.), and we will soon be installing our twelve tap system.  That's right.  TWELVE!  We will be the ONLY bar in Delta to offer a diverse palate of beer styles from Grimm Brothers, Ska, Palisade, Revolution, Oskar Blues, and other craft breweries. 

That's it for now, folks.  Keep your ears close to the ground, because our opening day is just around the corner.  This is what you have been waiting for all year!

No luck of the Irish for St. Patty's

Every time that we post a blog, it feels like we are preparing to tell you of another delay.  Well, this blog is no different than the rest.  It is safe to say, sadly, that we are not going to be open by St. Patty’s Day.  We are so close, but yet so far. 

As a courtesy to all of our fans and for those who are excited about this project, we should be really honest about the issues we are currently facing and explain why we keep postponing the opening date.  For the past six months, we have been in a tug of war with the state fire inspector.  We have had not one, but two plans approved by the Department of Public Safety to only be later revoked by no fault of our own.  We have made certain that everything is on the up and up.  We have been consistently jumping through one bureaucratic hoop after another.  However, each time we think that we are in the clear, another issue gets dropped in front of us.  We will spare you the details (mostly because it makes us want to drink away the frustrations), but these issues will be resolved very soon.  After this mess is truly finished, we will be publishing a blog with the specifics of the situation.  However, at this time we want to protect all of whom are involved in the project and have stuck their neck out to fight for what is truly right and safest for not only the bar patrons, but the residents upstairs.  We can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Minus the frustrations with the state inspector, everybody who we have worked with locally has been phenomenal.  We’ve had some great people in our corner who have been very supportive.  City Planner Dan Reardon and architect Tom Chamberlain have really gone to bat for us when it comes to the issues we have endured.  Our contractor, Bill Jensen, knows our building inside and out; he’s done a tremendous job at turning our vision into something substantial during the construction process and dealing gracefully with every “oddball” request we have thrown at him.  (One of Bill’s most used phrases is “We’ll just have to get creative.”)  The list goes on and on with the people who we are truly thankful for making this project a reality.

The bar top with one coat of resin.  Let it shine!

Speaking of construction, a few more updates.  We have a bar top!  Our custom bottle cap bar top is assembled.  The last coat of epoxy resin has been poured tonight, making this one-of-a-kind beauty look like a pristine piece of glass.  As smooth as it is, we’ll be ready to slide a cold one down to you at the end of the bar.  Once the final coat sets, we will be sure to post the final pictures.  

If you didn't know what a growler is, now you know.

Also, our lighting is in.  Here’s another unique “CB’s only” commodity.  We have gathered a number of growlers from Colorado breweries (Ouray, Golden City, Glenwood Canyon, etc.), and have turned them into pendant lights.  Courtesy of All Glass Station and Dianna’s Lighting & Design, these bad boys have turned out awesome.

We have finally pulled all of our big permits, so now we can finish sheet rocking all the walls.  We started in the kitchen, so that we could get the hood vent installed.  We then enlisted an entire crew of friends to help finish the rest of the walls, which helped us make a lot of progress in a very short amount of time.  Thanks to Floyd, Coops, Cathy, Weylin, Jessica, Scott, Cooley, Chad, Joey, and Hailey for your dry walling skills.  We can say with certainty that if for any reason the bar business falls through, we have an arsenal of friends and family that could make one hell of a handyman service.  (We’ll just call that “Plan B” for now.)

After a long night of working...

Finally, we have been busy with the fun part of the bar lately: the booze.  As a great sacrifice to our future customers, we have been sampling as many beers as possible.  It’s a tough job, but somebody has got to do it.  (By the way, if you haven’t tried the new New Belgium seasonal, Dig, yet, you really should; it’s awesome.)  Keep in mind that our vision for this bar was to focus on Colorado products.  With that in mind, you can expect a variety of craft beers from Avery, Ska, Palisade, New Belgium and Revolution Brewing.  Of course, we will have the standards on tap (Coors Light, Bud Light, Blue Moon, etc.), but we will be the only place in Delta to offer a variety of craft brews and really favor the more sophisticated tastes that Colorado has to offer.  Next stop: wine.

So, until next time, we will be plugging away.  Hang in there folks; CB’s Tavern will be worth the wait.  Look for us towards the end of March to be hiring.  We not only want to serve local products, but we want to employ local barkeeps, cooks, and servers!

Why we needed bottle caps...

Roughly 3 gallons of unused caps

Not too long ago you may remember a call to arms posted on Facebook, demanding that our fellow drinkers save their highly coveted bottle caps.  Turns out that we have a lot of friends who like to drink.  Who would have guessed?  As a result, we now have a glut of really bad ass caps from a wide variety of beers.  Life is too short to drink bad beer, and we're proud that our friends agree.  Now, the great reveal of what we have been working on, just to prove all that drinking was not done in vain.  (Yeah... I laughed at the thought of drinking done in vain too.)

Basically, this is a tale of stealing other people's ideas and making it our own.  We discovered a bike store in Palisade that converted some old doors to make a counter top.  We decided to steal this idea for the bar top, so we found some old school doors from Habitat for Humanity for this project.  However, after seeing a picture on Kegworks of a guy who used bottle caps as back splash for his man cave bar, the light bulb over our collective heads lit up: Why not cover these bar tops with a bunch of caps of the beer that we enjoy so much?  Essentially, we treated these caps like tile -- put down thin set, place the caps down in some coherent order, and then grout the bad boys in place.  We'll then shellac the whole thing so that we have a smooth surface to slide a cold one down to you at the end of the bar.

Boyd cheesin' and cappin'

The final product after grouting... not too shabby, eh?

So a special thank you goes out to Garrison, Devin, Mark, Fred, Trish, and everybody who came over for New Year's -- your handiwork will be on permanent display at CB's Tavern.  Cheers.

Wait... that was the Paper Works?

In other news, we are really rockin' and rollin' lately.  We have completed one phase of framing.  Currently, the space for the kitchen, bathrooms, and storage have been finalized.  Plumbing and electrical are going in now.  And once that is finished, it's back to drywalling, mudding, and painting.  Also, all of the HVAC venting is being installed, including a snazzy commercial hood vent for the kitchen.  It is actually starting to look like a bar now... and it's about damn time.

Soon home to the coldest beer in Delta County.

Pretty soon, we can turn our attention to the most exciting space -- the actual bar.  After some careful searching, we found a steal of a deal for a walk-in cooler near Fort Collins on Craigslist.  After a fun-filled road trip to pick up this sucker -- which included staying at one of the shadiest of hotels in Denver (note to self... avoid the Budget Host Inn from now on) -- we now have our keg cooling system secured.  Rather than running beer lines all over place and worry keeping them cooled and unkinked, we are going to run the taps directly through the wall of the cooler.  A rather large order to Kegworks is in our near future.  We're talking multiple 5 tap regulators, Euro and domestic couplers, shanks, tanks, and a butt load of hose.  Basically, we are building one gi-normous kegerator, capable of handling up to 10 beers on taps.  I'm getting thirsty just thinking about it.

That's about it for now.  As always, we're making progress.  We'll try to keep everybody posted on the grand opening because we expect all of you to be there.

Holy delayed opening, Batman!

Remember when there was supposed to be a new tavern that was going to open on Main Street?  Man, that seems like a long time ago.  I wonder what’s going on with that project.

I’ll tell you what’s going on!  CB’s Tavern is on the move again.  It is official – the building permits are posted and it’s time for a little Rock ‘n Roll.  Rather than sleigh bells, you’ll hear the sound of power tools at 334 Main Street during this holiday season.

Since we last updated the blog-o-sphere, we were busy making some renovations.  First, we scrapped the idea of refinishing the existing hardwood floors, because we would have to remove layers of linoleum that were installed during the Cretaceous Period (there were fossils in the tar paper).  The labor involved would have meant some extra sessions at the Cooper Family Chiropractors.  Instead, we purchased 2,000+ square feet of laminate flooring that looks nice and is durable.  The majority of the front area has been completed, sans the bar and walk-in cooler.

Also, we’ve got the ceiling looking spiffy.  We kept the original ceiling tile, because 1) it was in good shape and 2) it had the retro look we wanted.  However, the stark white coloring made us feel like we were about to be institutionalized.  (Actually, some times we have felt crazy for taking on this project, so that may be the place for us.)  The ceilings are now a stunning bronze that compliments the red brick wall and dark oak floors. 

So now the fun part FINALLY begins.  We have conquered a mountain of red tape, secured financing, and have laid the foundation for a *hopeful* opening in February.  We are asking all future patrons to knock on every visible piece of wood, cross your fingers/toes/eyes/legs/etc., and pray to whomever you consider to be your higher power that things go smoothly during construction.  We will try to keep you all updated with photos.

May your holidays be filled with family, friends, and beer!

Patience makes the heart grow fonder... and thirstier

"Patience and fortitude can conquer all things." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ol' Ralphie probably wasn't building a bar when he uttered those words.  But in the grand scheme of things, he is right.  After starting into this project, there wasn't much of a light at the end of the tunnel.  However, bit by bit, we have made some tremendous progress.

She's a brick... wall.

For starters, the walls are finito!  They have been de-plastered, grinded, re-mortared, and sealed.  And they look spectacular!  In all honesty, I am not certain if these century old walls have looked much better.  Here's a fun fact for you CB's followers: When you have four grinders going at the exact same time, you can create a mini-haboob with pretty limited visibility.  (If you are unfamiliar with the what a "haboob" is, I promise that I am not trying to be obscene.  It is definitely one of my new favorite words.)  These walls bring in quite a bit of character to the space already. 

The floor looks like Charlie Brown's shirt

Now that the walls are complete, we have turned our attention to the ceiling and floors.  The old ceiling tiles are in good shape, so they are going to stay.  They need to be cleaned and painted.  Also, so that we can bring everything up to code for fire safety, we are in the midst of getting quotes on sprinkler systems.  The ceilings actually produce a whole litany of "to do" items, such as speakers, lighting, etc.  (We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.)  As for the floors, we might need a professional paleontologist to peal back all of the layers.  We have carpet on top of linoleum on top of tar paper on top of tongue and groove hard wood.  So far, all of the carpet is pulled up, and we are waiting on the linoleum so that we don't have to tape off the floor when we paint the ceiling.  The tar paper has seemed to preserve the hard wood floors well, so hopefully not much work is needed to restore this gem.  I repeat: hopefully.  And on a side note:  In the great history of Western Civilization, who the hell ever thought that linoleum looked good?  I've seen more attractive patterns on Bill Cosby's sweaters.  I can't wait to get rid of this stuff.

Understandably, the goal to open by Deltarado Days was not achieved, and that is okay.  You can't rush a good thing.  Construction is in a holding pattern until we get everything up to code.  Once we pull that final permit when zoning is complete, watch out!  We'll be able to move much more quickly.  So hang in there folks, because this will be worth the wait.  That first beer from CB's is going to taste ever so delicious when all is said and done.  Until then, we'll just keep plugging away.




Carrie seems deep in thought.

 

Another brick in the wall...

Hey CB’s followers!  Long time, no blog.

For those of you walking down Main Street who have been peeking into the window for the past few weeks, you can tell that demolition has picked up speed recently.  Now that we have made the move from Denver to Delta officially, it is all hands on deck. 

As a result, the walls are 99.9% de-plastered as of today.  And, oh, what surprises we have found underneath that plaster.  On the north wall, we found the outline of what appears to be an old doorway that has been filled in with yellow brick.  We have been brainstorming on how to highlight this part of the wall.  One idea that we are toying with is installing an actual door as a “drunk test” for those who are too inebriated to find the actual bathroom. 

On the south wall, we have discovered a ton of multicolored bricks – some green, some black, some with writing on them.  It is obvious that this wall was constructed during a time when folks simply had to use what resources they have readily available.  This was recycling before it was cool.  We are trying to avoid using the wire brush excessively on these bricks to maintain their integrity. 

Next on the “to do” list…

o   Finish demo on back walls

o   Paint the ceiling tiles

o   Pull up the carpet and tiles on the floors to refinish the hardwood underneath

If you like breaking stuff, feel free to volunteer.  We typically start work every Tuesday and Thursday around 6 pm.  Bring your scrubs and be prepared to work your butt off.

We are getting closer to finishing demo so that we can actually do something constructive.  The floor plans have been almost finalized.  All that is needed is the stamp of approval from the architect, and we can get moving on the actual construction. 

Finally, from the human resources front, CB’s Tavern is now taking applications and resumes.  If you can pour drinks, serve food, and chat it up with patrons (while chewing gum simultaneously), feel free to inquire about job opportunities.