"There's not really a place in town that's like a little saloon," Lindsey Blanchard told the Montrose Business Times this summer. She was standing behind the bar at 439 E. Main St., in a room that already had most of its wood paneling before she and her husband, Ray, opened there.
Montrose has had a lot of openings in 2026, and most of them started from something already in place. That might be a finished interior, a sister restaurant next door, or a first location in another town. Because so many moved into existing buildings and businesses, the new places sit close together, and an evening can now run from the 200 block to the 500 block of East Main on foot.
Here is the route from west to east, with what's confirmed about each stop as of early October.
| Address | Stop | What's new in 2026 | Known schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 232 E. Main St. | Eatery 66 North | Dinner earlier this year, then a separate lunch room added in August | Lunch and dinner |
| 346 E. Main St. | Persimmon | Opened this summer next to sister restaurant MoSo | Tuesday–Saturday, cocktails from 4 p.m., dinner from 5 p.m. |
| 439 E. Main St. | The Rye & The Rose | Soft opening June 18 in the Lathrop Hardware building | Oysters on Fridays and Saturdays |
| 511 E. Main St. | The Temple | Hosts the Art Partners Chili Bowl on Nov. 28 | Event date |
| 512 E. Main St. | Pruf Pizza | First storefront, opened this fall | Not published |
The 200 Block: A Ridgway Restaurant Adds a Second Room
Katie and Spencer Graves opened Eatery 66 North at 232 E. Main St. for dinner earlier this year. That came about a decade after they opened the original restaurant in Ridgway. So the Montrose location didn't have to build a kitchen team or a reputation from nothing. That may explain how quickly it took the next step.
The couple renovated the building into two separate spaces under one roof. One room is for dinner. The other is a lunch room that can also be booked for private parties. Lunch service started in August, according to the Montrose Daily Press. Graves told the paper she wanted the lunch room to feel "casual, yet comfortable." The midday menu has its own lineup of shareables, soups, salads and handhelds. "We want to create a different vibe," she said.
Just across the block, the city has given the street a reason to stay this way. On July 21, City Council designated the E. A. Lee Garage at 219 E. Main St. as a historic property. The council designated a second building on the same night, and it turns up three stops later.
The 300 Block: A Hong Kong Group Returns to a Montrose Address
Persimmon opened this summer at 346 E. Main St., right next to MoSo. Both restaurants belong to Typhoon Hospitality. Typhoon is based in Hong Kong, but the company has local roots. Typhoon general manager Edward Read told the Montrose Daily Press that CEO Alia Eyres grew up in Montrose and once worked in this same space when it was Daily Bread. "Thirty years later," Read said, "they love Montrose, and they want to do business here."
General Manager Marianna French runs both Persimmon and MoSo. She calls Persimmon MoSo's "boujee big sister that likes her fancy things." She also describes it as a "modern, Asian-influenced steakhouse." The menu includes steak, pork, lamb and seafood with touches like chimichurri made with yuzu and soy sauce. Appetizers and sides run from tofu dishes to steak fries, and the dessert list includes sticky rice with seasonal fresh fruit. Read said the kitchen buys local ingredients whenever it can.
The dining room mixes two styles. It has traditional Japanese dividers for privacy, plus a refurbished bar counter designed to look like it came out of a Western saloon. French said the wine list took the better part of a year to put together and may be one of the longest in town. The drinks menu runs from Japanese lagers to sake cocktails.
Persimmon is open Tuesday through Saturday. Cocktails start at 4 p.m., and dinner seating starts at 5 p.m. French said guests are welcome to stop in just for a drink. On Persimmon's open nights, that hour between 4 and 5 is the easiest place to start this route.
The 400 Block: A Saloon in a Hardware Store, Built on a Wine Bar
On the same night it designated the E. A. Lee Garage, City Council also designated the Lathrop Hardware building as historic. Its historic address is 439 East Main Street. The Rye & The Rose now operates in that building. The council approved its tavern liquor license on May 5 under Double Barrel Taco Company LLC. The bar held a soft opening on June 18.
The Blanchards inherited a lot of what's inside. The space used to be Wild Horse Wine and Whiskey, owned by Scott Mijares, and much of the wood-heavy interior was already in place. The new owners added saddles and a new wall behind the bar. Lindsey Blanchard told the Montrose Business Times that the previous owner "had done a phenomenal job with the space," so they could build on it instead of starting over.
There's also an old piano. It's a Becker Brothers dating to around the turn of the 20th century, and it still plays. The couple hired Chris Isaac, a local piano tuner who owns Rocky Mountain High Notes, to work on it, and Isaac plays it himself on some Saturdays. The cocktails have names like Saddle Leather and The Outlaw's Prayer. The food is small plates and boards:
- Truffle chips with Parmesan, white truffle oil and chives
- Spiced cashews, candied pecans and smoked almonds
- Pretzels with chili butter and smoked salt
- Guacamole, cowboy queso and black bean dip
- Sausage, barbecue and snack boards
- Shrimp cocktail, ceviche and smoked salmon
- Oysters on the half shell, Fridays and Saturdays only
The oysters have already become one of the bar's early draws, the Business Times reported. The building has room to grow. It's about 3,100 square feet and includes a sizable upstairs area overlooking the main bar that isn't being used yet. Blanchard said the concept is still evolving. She said she pictures it as a place for date night, a night out with friends, or a drink before or after dinner. A drink after dinner at Persimmon, one block west, fits that description.
The 500 Block: Pruf Gets a Fixed Address
At the east end of the route, Pruf Pizza now has a storefront at 512 E. Main St. Owners Nathan Gueck, Troy Ryder and Beau Miller opened it in the past few weeks, according to a Montrose Daily Press story updated Oct. 2. The Montrose Daily Press called it a "punk pizza joint" that is "finally claiming its own slice of downtown." City Council approved a hotel and restaurant liquor license for Pruf Concepts Inc. at that address during its Aug. 18 meeting.
Pruf hasn't published hours, so call ahead. With Pruf open, the eastern end of the route now has a casual option to go with the dinner rooms on the 200 and 300 blocks.
The Temple sits across the street at 511 E. Main St. It will host the Art Partners Youth Mentoring Chili Bowl on Nov. 28, and organizers are inviting the public to make and donate bowls ahead of the event. That makes the 500 block a reasonable place to end the evening that Saturday.
Two Licenses Still Waiting on Opening Dates
Two more Main Street restaurants have their liquor licenses approved by City Council, but neither has a confirmed opening date as of this writing. Both are outside the four-block stretch.
- Star Cajun Seafood Boil at 44 S. Grand Ave./116 W. Main St., west of downtown's center. Council approved its hotel and restaurant liquor license on June 16.
- Claudia's Kitchen & Bakery at 1245 E. Main St., well east of the 500 block. Council approved its license on Aug. 18, the same night as Pruf's. An online ordering page with posted hours already exists, but no public announcement has confirmed when the restaurant opens.
A liquor license is the city's approval to serve. It doesn't guarantee a ribbon-cutting by any particular date. When either restaurant opens, it will add a stop at one end of Main Street. The four-block stretch in the middle will still have the evening's main lineup.
Where the Route Stands This Month
As of October 2026, here's how a full evening on East Main lines up. Lunch at Eatery 66 North starts the day. On Tuesday through Saturday, cocktails at Persimmon begin at 4 p.m., ahead of its 5 p.m. dinner seating. On Fridays and Saturdays, oysters are on the menu at The Rye & The Rose, and some Saturdays come with Chris Isaac at the piano. Pruf is at the far end of the 500 block.
Three of the confirmed stops grew out of something that was already there. The Daily Bread space is now Persimmon. A wood-paneled wine bar inside a historic hardware store became a saloon. A Ridgway restaurant's second location now has a lunch room in addition to its dinner room.
East Main shows what happens when a historic building finds the right operator. Whether you're thinking about leasing a downtown storefront or buying a building with an older interior someone could build on, Colleen Aller and Team Aller can help you think through the space, the zoning and the tenant fit before you commit. Contact us to talk through a Main Street property.
