Barbara Lawlor

Gilpin County

About noon on Saturday, Dec. 1, Roy's Last Shot parking lot was filled, so were the tables inside the restaurant. The reason for the mob action? A free lunch. Yup, there actually is a free lunch if you live in or around Gilpin County.

Roy and Barb Stewart believe in treating the community that supports them with a Christmas buffet. Every year a few weeks before Dec. 25, they set their staff to work, cooking enough food for a couple of hundred people and then letting them have at it.

Last Saturday, it was make your own tacos and chicken stroganoff along with the salad bar and homemade cookies that just kept coming. Roy, looking magnanimous, greeted his guests, thanking them for a prosperous season.

The guests ate and ate and felt lucky to be living in such a giving place at this time of the year. Roy said he plans to get his new grocery store open before the New Year. He plans to sell basic food necessities at reasonable prices for the residents' convenience.

"I started out here and now I ended up here," said Roy. 'And it is all going well."

His philosophy is if you've got good fortune, share it.