Exit Strategy: El Rancho Could Become a QuikTrip

"Just in time for patio season…change is happening at El Rancho Colorado," pronounced the April Instagram post announcing new management at the storied Evergreen restaurant.

The changes continue. El Rancho has since posted on social media that it's open only for special events. And that soon could end, too: The phone isn't accepting queries, and the owners have filed with Jefferson County to replace the homey-on-the-range landmark with a convenience store/gas station.

El Rancho got its start in 1948, when the Jahnke family built a rustic log building by the side of U.S. Route 40, putting a restaurant on the first floor and moving in upstairs. Mildred and Ray Zipprich, a couple who had a pie-distribution company in Milwaukee, bought the place in 1953, adding a post office and an emphasis on baking. But El Rancho really took off in 1958, after Donna and Paul McEncroe moved to Colorado and took over from Donna's parents. (Full disclosure: My mother was a sorority sister of Donna Zipprich at Northwestern.)

The McEncroes were determined to make El Rancho a real destination, and as the federal government was building Interstate 70 through the mountains, Paul persuaded builders to create an "El Rancho" exit for folks heading to the then-sleepy town of Evergreen.

Soon, El Rancho was literally on the map. The McEncroes added a gift shop, a visitor information center and a bus parking area. By 1988, when they decided to retire and sold the property to Skip Rousch, they were pulling in $2.2 million in annual sales — up from $115,000 the year they took over. On one Valentine's Day, their son recalls, they did 1,200 covers.

After Rousch, El Rancho went through several more owners, including Mark McKenna, who sold some of the property's 10.5 acres for development. And develop the area they did, adding a bank, a motel and more along the start of the new Evergreen Parkway.

In 2015, after the place had been empty for a year, Paul Vincent and his brothers took over and started El Rancho Brewery. But that enterprise fell flat in the face of COVID and other challenges, and by 2022, an ownership dispute had again shuttered El Rancho.

In November 2022, Evergreen's Jack and Sherry Buchanan of Northstar Ventures and Travis McAfoos of Piedra Peak Properties partnered to purchase the El Rancho property — now a 21,900-square-foot building on 5.4 very scenic and well-situated acres, and partnered with the Bonanno Concepts restaurant group to run the operation. But then this April, the Bonannos were out. The owners pointed to an unpopular mandatory service fee the Bonannos charge at all of their restaurants. In turn, the Bonannos pointed to rumors that the owners wanted to use the site for a gas station.
And on August 7, McAfoos filed a pre-application with Jefferson County Planning and Zoning to convert the site to a QuikTrip location.

"The proposed Convenience Store with Service Station honors the second-decade legacy of the site as a stopping point for travelers," reads the letter of intent from Coy Williams, project manager. "Owned and operated by QuikTrip Corporation...the project will be developed in scale and character consistent with the surrounding community and the recommendations for the Evergreen Area Plan."

Meanwhile, it notes, “The current property owners are evaluating the feasibility of relocating the existing restaurant to a nearby property." In fact, the day before McAfoos filed his request, the Buchanans submitted their own pre-application to develop a hotel, bar and restaurant on land just across the road, where the Observatory bar once stood when it and El Rancho were about the only occupants of this now-booming area.

In Denver, a proposal to dump a 75-year-old landmark — no official designation, but with its own highway exit! — would bring out the preservationists. But the Jefferson County Historical Commission operates by different rules than its Denver counterparts, and does not allow hostile landmark applications by third parties. "If someone came to us who said we're going to tear down a building, all we can do is advise them not to do it," says Dan Haas, chair of the Jeffco commission. "We ask owners to consult with us."

So far, there has been no such consultation. And since the property is zoned C-1, it could hold a gas station — even a giant QuikTrip — without rezoning, note officials with Jeffco Planning and Zoning.

The Tulsa-based QuikTrip has been moving quickly since it announced its first Colorado location in June 2022 at another almost-landmark site, Pasternack's Art Hub on West Colfax Avenue, where several galleries priced out of Denver had found a temporary home. Although the QuikTrip at that address has yet to open, the galleries have relocated to other 40West spots in Lakewood, and Colorado now has thirteen QuikTrips.

“To provide an assurance of transparency, QuikTrip will soon launch a public website to provide information on the Project," Williams notes in his letter of intent regarding the Evergreen site. That website has yet to appear.

But in the meantime, the El Rancho website continues to offer this: "The enduring appeal of this unique landmark becomes clear. It stands as a celebration of history, great food, and community spirit—a legacy that promises to enrich the culinary landscape for generations to come."

As long as you like convenience-store snacks.