Keep It Local: Coming soon: Mountain Peak Cafe

 NEDERLAND - “So many things run out,” Resham Gurung said, planning out her staff’s priorities while sitting in the newly redecorated dining room of her next venture, as the sounds of power tools echoed in the kitchen.

The contractors work in the background to finish up the interior and prepare for the restaurant’s grand opening, as Gurung admits to being slightly anxious.  

“I know from opening the restaurant that first time, you run out of everything,” Gurung muses, as she waits for the next round of interviewees for the head chef position to arrive. She reminisces about the first grand opening of her professional career as a restauranteur.

“You don’t know what you need, you don’t know how much you need; so one person needs to be available to do that, to run and do the shopping.” She redirects her thought and addresses it to her husband, Lok Malla, who will most assuredly be doing those last minute shopping runs to Costco when their new restaurant opens.   

Gurung and Malla are no strangers to running a successful Nederland restaurant, as their powerhouse of Nepalese cuisine, the Kathmandu Restaurant, has been running strong in Nederland for over 20 years. 

But the opening of the Mountain Peak Cafe is different. Not only is it an entirely different cuisine, as this new menu bristles with classic American diner fare, but for Gurung and Malla, their entire focus has shifted.

No longer are they striving to ensure their family’s foothold in the community and throughout Colorado (as Gurung’s efforts has supported up to 150 members of her family in emigrating to America and finding success as doctors, nurses, engineers and restaurateurs), so the couple’s focus for the Mountain Peak Cafe  is more localized.

“My brother lives in Evergreen, far away,” Gurung told The Mountain-Ear, as she reminisced about how she came to take over the famous bright-yellow building at 121 North Jefferson Street, “and he said, ‘you do it, it’s easier for you,’” she laughs. “And Malla has always wanted this building.”

“I like to go have breakfast once in a while,” Malla said modestly, “and my son always likes to have some scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, but where do we go?” He noted that sometimes he yearns for more variety rather than ordering to-go in Nederland, or traveling all the way down the hill to busy Boulder restaurants.

“And they’re so packed you have to wait a half hour, oh my goodness!” 

“That might happen here for the first few weekends,” Gurung said.

Though Gurung can feel the anticipation of opening the Cafe’s doors for the first time, she and Malla remain steadfast in delivering to the public an experience that has been missing from the center of downtown, and providing the right atmosphere to accurately represent Nederland.

To create a place where locals feel at home, and out-of-towners can get a taste of “quirky and quaint” mountain life.

“When this building is vacant the town feels dead,” Brittney Benson said. Gurung and Malla have partnered with Benson, enlisting her knowledge and expertise to help launch the Cafe.

With experience and understanding of the history of the location, Benson knows the importance of having a strong, and truly representative presence there. 

“It needs to stay alive to keep our community going, because we don’t want a ghost town. We want to keep supporting Ned and be able to raise our kids here and have something for them to come to.” 

It’s not just an interior redesign that creates the kind of authenticity that the Mountain Peak Cafe is aiming for, but the fact that the business is being redesigned from the ground up by managers, owners, and contractors, who understand the intricacies of not just running a business, but running one successfully up here in the mountains. 

Gurung and Malla won’t just be managing the business and kitchen, they’re the new owners of the building as well. Already their time and money has been diligently spent on updating and upgrading the building and equipment, fostering the right kind of stability for this brand new venture.

Every aspect of the Mountain Peak Cafe has been designed with the community in mind, from the openness of its dining room featuring playable instruments adorning the walls and inviting impromptu bluegrass picks, right down to the choices on the menu.

“I had someone in the community ask if we’re going to have a tofu scramble,” Gurung said to Malla and to Benson, as the final touches on the menu were being made.

“Ah tofu is no big deal!” Malla says, as he knows that it doesn’t harm the business to have alternative options available on the menu. “You want to put out something like that, that way people can try new things.” 

Benson mentioned to Malla how she had attempted to Google an Indian omelette. However, the results were only showing recipes for a masala omelette. The very concept made Malla laugh heartily.  

The Cafe features a perfect blend of nostalgic diner favorites and eclectic dishes for the more adventurous, so whether you’re craving a classic breakfast of sausage, toast, and two eggs over easy, or a medium rare cheeseburger and fries, or if you want to expand your horizons with buttermilk-fried chicken on a vanilla bean waffle, you’re sure to be satisfied.

“Quality, portion, and price,” Malla said with a smile.

“That’s the magic formula,” Benson agrees.

“We have a cheaper menu here than in Boulder because we look out for local people,” Malla continued. “This  is the mountain and I want to look out for local people.”

“It’s very important, you know,” Gurung agreed, her mind obviously still racing as she sat among the whirring and clanging of construction, thinking only of how to best serve the community. 

The Mountain Peak Cafe is located at 121 North Jefferson Street and is set to have their soft opening in mid-December. They will be open for breakfast and lunch service.

Benson, Gurung, and Malla plan for dinner and bar service to be added at a later date, as well as other expansions to the Cafe’s services, including special events and promotions, such as late-night music acts, and a discounted menu for Eldora employees.