Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. Next year, Kay Lorenz will celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, along with all the other mothers, something she has never been able to do because she always worked on Mother’s Day. So did her children, and, of course, her husband Bill.
When you own a restaurant that has been known as the place to go for special occasions for nearly 60 years, you don’t have holidays…no Thanksgiving, no Christmas, no Valentine’s Day. Kay was at the restaurant, The Black Forest Inn when it was in Black Hawk, and the Black Forest Restaurant in Nederland.
Bill Lorenz is a workaholic and Kay has been his support, the person who stands behind him, who made a home for their family. Their five children knew that when they turned 11 or 12 years old, if only to pour water at the tables, they would be working in the restaurant also. That was what the Lorenz family does.
At least that’s what they did. At the end of the day next Sunday, August 13, Bill and Kay and their extended family of long-time employees will close the doors to the restaurant for the last time. They have sold the large chalet-type building on the edge of town and will go their separate ways.
On Sunday, Kay and the long-time employees said they haven’t really figured out what is next for them. They have been busy cleaning out their personal items from the restaurant; the pictures of where they started in Black Hawk, the teams of employees, many of whom are no longer with us. There is even a picture of Schnapps, the 14-year-old dog who was a fixture in Black Hawk, before the casinos moved in and the Black Forest was the largest functioning business in town.
The rock wall fountain will remain, but the plants will go because they wouldn’t survive the down time between closing and opening again.
On Sunday, Bill was home recovering from some health issues while Kay worked the restaurant and greeted locals who came to have lunch for one last time and to say goodbye.
There is nowhere else in town that serves oxtail soup, made in huge buckets with pieces of tender beef, fresh vegetables and spices, cooked down to an exquisite, rich, tasty broth that can’t be found anywhere else. The favorite entree is the sauerbraten with red cabbage and potato pancake, a perfect blend of textures and flavors, just one of the German food offerings that have always drawn people in for special occasions.
But it isn’t just the food that has drawn people to the restaurant. It is the welcoming feeling that the staff extends to its patrons, the respect and personal service that was always extended to each guest.
The restaurant was what Bill did, every day except Mondays since he first went to Black Hawk and decided to buy a building and open a cafe. Kay says that once the business got started, Bill never let anyone leave hungry, whether they could pay or not.
Bill Lorenz grew up in Germany during World War II, in 1936 when the country was fighting four different fronts. Food was rare then, he says, civilians didn’t have much to eat. His father, who owned three restaurants, went to war in 1939, becoming a paratrooper who was taken prisoner and sent to the air base to be a chef for prominent visitors and military personnel.
Bill says he ended up in the restaurant business by accident. He had been working for a Jewish scrapper who was trying to run a business. At the time, his dad said he needed to learn a decent trade. Bill liked his job and was trusted by the owner, Otto, for checking the metals for their purity and weighing them accurately. But he listened to his day and found work in the food business.
Bill worked at the Hotel La Central in Mainz, serving as apprentice while the hotel was under French command. He went on to work at the U.S. military base in Wiesbaden and made such a good impression that one of the American officers sponsored his trip to the United States.
When he arrived in Denver in the January of 1957, Bill landed a job at the Brown Palace, which set in motion his connections to the Central City Opera, which he says, was the main influence on his business.
“I was there to help with the opening of the opera and that led to me buying the place in Black Hawk. Without the opera association, I wouldn’t have come to Black Hawk.”
At one time, Bill donated $200 for paint so the residents could spruce of their houses so the opera buffs would not have to drive by and see the run down shacks that bordered the road to Central City.
The Lorenzes remodeled the Black Hawk building and opened for business. It was well worth their while in the summer but it was dead in the winter. Bill’s mother and father came to Colorado to help with the cafe which soon became crowded, which meant adding on to the original structure.
At this time, he and Kay had three children and Kay was home with the babies. When they first got married, Bill was working in Denver to carry them through the winter months and Kay and Anna, Bill’s mother, worked at the restaurant. Soon, the Black Forest Inn was a large, sit-down, take your time, family restaurant that became a destination point for Denver residents and a gathering place for locals’ parties and events and all family occasions.
The restaurant hosted many wedding receptions. Kay said that every one of her children had at least one wedding at the restaurant, as well as birthdays and other celebrations.
“I told our children that if they wanted to get married on a weekend, it had to be on a Bronco Sunday, when no one came to the restaurant anyway. If our anniversary fell on a weekend, we would have to wait and celebrate on Monday when we were closed. Valentine’s Day was on a Monday, and any other holiday.”
Looking back on their life story with the restaurant, Kay says, it has been such a long journey. She says that even though all the kids had worked in the restaurant, all of them have pursued their own careers and have no desire to take over the restaurant.
In the years before gambling, the restaurant did well, building up a dedicated, loyal clientele.
Kay says, “A lot of people from Denver discovered the restaurant. We would get a few regular customers who would tell their friends to come up and see us and the word would spread and before we knew it, we had grandchildren of the original guests coming in and asking us if we remembered their parents and grandparents. Everyone had a story to tell,” says Kay.
Bill was 23 years old when he started the restaurant and many of the regular customers are gone, but their relatives have carried on the traditions. The Black Forest Restaurant was the place to go for special occasions, because they worked hard to have things done right, make the table special with flowers and tablecloths and a greeting from the owner who remembered everyone’s name.
In 1990, things changed. Gambling came to the mountains and even though Bill was one of the original supporters of gambling in the mountain towns, things turned sour. He had joined the Black Hawk City Council in 1964, served as an alderman for 18 years, was the justice of the peace for two years and the mayor of Black Hawk for six years.
At first Bill was all for the gambling proposal, thinking it would keep Black Hawk and Central City from going under financially, and he joined the Central City Preservation organization to put the issue on the ballot. In 1990, voters approved limited stakes gambling for Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek and Bill had to step down from his governmental positions.
The Lorenzes built Otto’s, the casino part of the Black Forest Inn and for a while it seemed to work, but then the big corporate casinos came in and many of the original small town casinos went under. It was time to cut their losses, but Bill wasn’t going to give up his life’s work and looked for reasonable places to start over.
He and his chef of 30 years Al Arias, became partners and found that the Swiss Chalet in Nederland was for sale. He knew he could make it work. Most of his staff joined in the move, as did the family’s children. When the doors opened, people walked through them, happy to have an elegant place to dine. The Lorenz family rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
Bill was the front man, the personality, the greeter and the dispenser of chocolate truffles for a special treat.
“This has been his life,” says Kay. “Not that many people know who I am, I am always in the background.” She might have been in the shadows at the restaurant, but she was busy in Gilpin County, becoming a staunch member of many community groups and taking care of running the house and family. She did the things that made the Lorenz’s a family and she came to the restaurant to help on weekends. She knew that the restaurant was the love of Bill’s life, but she never felt abandoned. She just supported him.
When it was time to move to Nederland, Bill thought he would be well received and he was. Nederland opened their arms to him and welcomed the family and the restaurant to their new town. Soon they were booking weddings and town events and were running the business like a post office, always open, rain or shine.”
Kay says their success has always been because of their employees. “Thank you, God,” she says, for all these years of having loyal employees. That just doesn’t happen.”
Through the years, the restaurant has had few employee turnovers and many of the employee’s children often ended up working for the Lorenz’s.
About six years ago, Kay began to have notions about retiring, but Bill wasn’t up for it. He knew he was a workaholic and worried about what he would do without heading to the Black Forest every day.
“He couldn’t relax,” says Kay. “He was busy, busy, busy. But time wears on you, everyone grows up around you.”
In 2011, the Black Forest restaurant went on the market; they were testing the water, seeing what would happen, but they weren’t aggressive about it.
Kay said that this last year the time was right and a buyer stepped in and it is really going to happen. The Lorenz family is walking away from the business they began over 50 years ago. They don’t know what will become of the restaurant, but they know there will be some physical changes to the building, therefore, some down time to put it all together.
The personal belongings are coming off the walls, but they will leave all of the furnishings and equipment for the restaurant. A generic restaurant will remain when they leave.
Kay looks forward to attending her granddaughter, Shelby’s, wedding this Friday. She says she couldn’t have done that before, she would have had to tell them they had to get married on Monday.
Kay and Bill will make another trip to Germany while his relatives are still alive. Then they will come back to their ranch, their cows, the children and grandchildren and the projects that are going on in Gilpin County.
Bill says, “Kay decided six years ago that we should get out of the business. The restaurant business is not what it used to be, lucrative and busy…it’s not that way anymore. It used to be if you worked hard, the business was there. The hospitality business has suffered in the past 16 years. People don’t have the money to afford restaurant dining and social security checks don’t go very far.”
He feels sad that his parents had worked their hearts out to help him establish the restaurants and now all of his children have decided to go in other directions. The selling price, he says, will not compensate for all the years years, but he holds out a little hope that somewhere down the line, one of his children, or grandchildren might pick up on the business. They all know the ropes, he says.
Bill might dabble in real estate and he will keep his cattle, which now consists of 120 mother cows and probably as many calves.
Looking back on it all, he says that he is most proud of establishing a relationship with the Central City Opera, but his biggest accomplishment in his life was marrying his wife, Kay.
“It was a pleasure doing business in Nederland in the long run. It didn’t lend itself to what I had to offer and now we can’t do it anymore like we used to. The party is over, the body is wearing out and it is the way it is.
The Black Forest’s employees are not sure what the future holds for them. Martin Compel has been with the Lorenzes for the past 20 years and he says the future is “a big question mark.”
“I am eligible to retire, but I have to do something. I can’t sit on a couch and read the newspapers. I am a workaholic.”
Jose Mendoza has worked for the restaurant for 22 years, in fact, started with Bill when he was in Black Hawk. Jose is one of 11 children, some of which have worked at the restaurant over the years. Jose is one of a large family that have worked for the Black Forest over the years.
They can, however, be sure of one thing: Bill will never let them go hungry and Bill and Kay will attend their weddings and birthday parties.
It will be a good weekend to stop by the Black Forest and say goodbye to the iconic couple and their employees who kept a great restaurant alive for over half a century. The Black Forest will close on Sunday, August 13, 2017.
