{"id":438,"date":"2008-08-21T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2008-08-22T00:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=438"},"modified":"2026-03-31T12:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:18:17","slug":"the-hamilton-chophouse-durango-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=438","title":{"rendered":"The Hamilton Chop House – Durango, Colorado (CLOSED)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The
The Hamilton Chop House<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Land of Enchantment with its 121,356 square miles of deserts, mesas, rivers, mountains, forests, cities and villages is the fifth largest state in the country.\u00a0 In 2007, Albuquerque’s KOAT television station began a recurring series in which the station treated its viewers to an aerial perspective of many of the communities in its viewing area.\u00a0 That unique bird’s eye view\u00a0perspective was captured from Sky 7, the station’s\u00a0news helicopter. In 2008,\u00a0the station expanded its\u00a0coverage, sending\u00a0news anchor and New Mexico native Royale D\u00e1 skyward once again\u00a0to show viewers the challenges faced by the communities featured on the series and how they are dealing with those challenges.\u00a0 Royale was joined by city leaders from throughout the viewing area who boarded Sky 7 to share what makes their communities so special.<\/p>\n

One of the few\u00a0cities visited in 2008 outside of\u00a0New Mexico’s borders\u00a0was Durango, Colorado, long a part of KOAT’s viewing area.\u00a0 During the aerial tour of the city, Durango’s Director of Planning and Community Development Greg Hoch indicated that Durango actually has more restaurants per capita than the city of San Francisco. With a population of nearly 750,000 people, the city of San Francisco numbers just about 2,700 restaurants within its boundaries, giving it a\u00a0per capita density\u00a0of 279 people per restaurant.\u00a0 The City by the Bay is a\u00a0formidable restaurant city indeed.\u00a0 Sheer numbers, however, do not make a city a good dining destination.\u00a0 San Francisco has earned its reputation as an epicenter for epicurean excellence not\u00a0because of its overwhelming number of restaurants, but because many of\u00a0those restaurants are of exceedingly high quality.<\/p>\n

\"The
The interior of Hamilton’s Chop House<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Durango counts some 15,000 residents within its boundaries and is not as well known as a great restaurant city as it is\u00a0a town in which beer is literally woven into its cultural and social fabric.\u00a0 The city’s four breweries produce more than 15,000 barrels of beer annually, just over one barrel or 31 gallons\u00a0per man, woman and child resident.\u00a0 The city of Durango truly appreciates great craft beer. In past visits to Durango I left with the impression that the city has a number of “good” to “very good restaurants” and certainly appreciated the fact that there are so many of them from which to choose.\u00a0 Good to very good restaurants do not, however, make it a great restaurant town.\u00a0 Neither does the sheer number of restaurants.<\/p>\n

During a visit in August, 2008, we confirmed that Durango\u00a0is indeed\u00a0a good to very good restaurant town, but it has one\u00a0outstanding restaurant gem in its midst.\u00a0\u00a0It was a discovery as exciting to this humble gastronome as discovering gold and silver ore in the nearby mountains was to intrepid prospectors more than a century ago. That restaurant is the extraordinary\u00a0Hamilton Chop House, a tenant of the Glacier Club at\u00a0Tamarron Resort’s Sundowner Lodge\u00a0about twenty miles north of Durango.\u00a0 The distance separating this fabulous restaurant from dining establishments within the Durango city limits\u00a0seems symbolic of the distance in quality between the Hamilton Chop House and every other restaurant in the area.\u00a0 At the risk of hyperbole, it is probably the best steak house in which we’ve dined over the past fifteen years–and we’ve frequented the Chicago Chop House, regarded in many circles as the best independent steak restaurant in America.<\/p>\n

\"Five
Five Spice Quail<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The drive to the restaurant is spectacular as is the restaurant’s setting.\u00a0 Nestled among towering\u00a0oak, ponderosa and pine trees, the Hamilton Chop House is blessed with panoramic views of the nearby mountains.\u00a0 It is also adjacent to a 27-hole golf course.\u00a0 The ebony\u00a0night skies are\u00a0blanketed with a canopy of stars while the daytime’s cobalt skies seem to graduate in depth of color as your eyes climb skyward. Descend a flight of stairs to the restaurant’s\u00a0large living room and you might just be met at the bottom by the restaurant’s entrepreneurial owner Tom Hamilton, a whirling dervish of perpetual motion who\u00a0pulls simultaneous duty as greeter, busser, waiter and genial host as well as occasional chef.\u00a0 Tom is involved in all aspects of\u00a0his restaurant’s operation, having crafted all the innovative recipes that enrapt diners who frequent his fabulous restaurant.<\/p>\n

The Hamilton Chop House is the veteran restauteur’s latest restaurant venture, an evolution over time from his\u00a0Cafe Cascade,\u00a0a restaurant\u00a0named one of Colorado’s three best restaurants in 1990 by a Denver Post<\/em> restaurant critic.\u00a0 Two years after closing\u00a0Cafe Cascade Tom opened\u00a0The\u00a0Hamilton Chop House which he moved to its current site in 2005 after the Tamarron Resort made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.<\/p>\n

Chop House is a bit of a misnomer in that the restaurant is so much more than an upscale steak house.\u00a0 Everything–from the imaginative sauces to the flavorful stocks and decadent desserts–is made on the premises.\u00a0 Tom prides himself on purchasing beef and seafood of the very highest quality.\u00a0 The restaurant’s price point is surprisingly reasonable considering the quality.\u00a0 We’re talking about hand-selected prime and certified Black Angus steaks and chops properly aged to provide superior quality.\u00a0 Seafood is flown in twice weekly from a supplier who also provisions the very best restaurants in Vail and Aspen, the resort Meccas of the super-wealthy.<\/p>\n

About sixty percent of any given night’s orders come from the nightly specials sheet which features fresh seafood and some of the creative appetizers and entrees from which the restaurant established its reputation.\u00a0 Tom Hamilton takes food seriously!\u00a0 His executive chef of six years\u00a0is New Orleans native Chris Martin who shares Tom’s passion for providing a memorable dining experience with outstanding cuisine.<\/p>\n

While not effusively opulent, the Hamilton Chop House has a decidedly comfortable\u00a0western and slightly masculine\u00a0feel to it.\u00a0 A chandelier crafted from antlers lights up the front dining room which also houses the restaurant’s bar (the restaurant has a reputation for one of the best and most sophisticated wine lists in Colorado.)\u00a0 Large framed Ansel Adams photographs festoon a stucco wall prefacing the pristinely polished stucco half-wall dividing the front dining room from the main dining room.\u00a0 An imposing rock fireplace stands ready for those cold Colorado winter nights.<\/p>\n

Framed watercolor paintings by the late\u00a0Lenore Hamilton, Tom’s mother, adorn the main dining room.\u00a0 The paintings are a mix of beautiful, florid landscapes and vegetables such as mushrooms and red and green vegetables, some of which have unintentionally erotic qualities similar to Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings of flowers.\u00a0 Of course, men would find erotic qualities in Rorschach’s ink blots.\u00a0 My Kim didn’t see anything erotic in the restaurant (save for the steak on her plate).<\/p>\n

\"Shrimp
Shrimp wrapped in bacon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to prime beef and fresh seafood, the menu boasts an intriguing array of wild game including elk loin, kangaroo medallions, ostrich fillet and a mixed game grill.\u00a0 Seafood entrees include lobster with drawn butter, fresh scallops and a pound of Alaskan King Crab, all at ridiculously inexpensive rates that will have you doing a double-take.\u00a0 The restaurant aims to please and will craft a surf-and-turf combination to your liking.<\/p>\n

Steaks are prepared to your exacting specifications, using well-practiced techniques of\u00a0char-broiling or seasoning and pan-searing, your choice.\u00a0 Steaks, chops and seafood dinners include the Chop House’s homemade, freshly baked\u00a0bread and your choice of garlic mashed potatoes, French fries, baked potato, rice pilaf or vegetable of the day. An impressive array of sauces is also available for your dining pleasure, not that the steaks and chops need any amelioration whatsoever.\u00a0 The four sauces offered are a Bordelaise, Creamy Au Poivre, Mushroom Bordelaise and Four-Peppercorn.\u00a0 Each ostensibly offers unique flavor combinations that imbue beef with adventures in flavor.<\/p>\n

\"Oysters
Oysters Rockefeller served on a bed of sea salt<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the standard menu offers a strikingly inviting assortment of appetizers, be sure to closely study the appetizers on the specials sheet.\u00a0 This is where Tom Hamilton’s creativity is best on display.\u00a0 He has a gift for inventiveness, transforming appetizers the type of which we thought we had previously experienced into uniquely flavorful\u00a0preprandial delights.\u00a0 These appetizers will whet your appetite and appease all ten-thousand of your taste buds with deep and\u00a0lively flavors.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0the\u00a0appetizers from the specials (appropriately) sheet\u00a0had been the extent of our inaugural meal at\u00a0the Hamilton Chop House, it would still have been a fabulous meal.\u00a0 Fortunately, those appetizers were just the start of an adventure in delightful tastes.<\/p>\n

Make\u00a0your first appetizer (you’ll want several) the Five Spice Quail<\/em>,\u00a0\u00a0six unbelievable tender and meaty quail marinated in sherry with garlic, salt, pepper and five spice.\u00a0 The Chinese believe\u00a0five spice\u00a0embodies each of the five tastes in Chinese cooking–sweet, bitter, sour, salty and savory–but only when used correctly and in proper proportion, a balancing of yin and yang in food.\u00a0 Tom Hamilton knows his five spice, applying it in just the right proportions to bring out the\u00a0tastes I would not have imagined from quail.\u00a0 Most quail tends to be on the desiccated and tough with a gamey blandness that’s hard to explain.<\/p>\n

There is nothing foul about the Chop House’s fowl.\u00a0\u00a0Lightly battered and deep fried to a golden consistency, each meaty morsel (and there were s a lot of\u00a0them for such a relatively small bird) was tender and absolutely delicious in its own right…so good you wouldn’t want to add anything to it.\u00a0 That is until you taste the absolutely phenomenal sauce provided with this appetizer.\u00a0 The basis for the sauce is a variety of flavor-rich ingredients such as fresh ginger, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar and chile.\u00a0 Somehow the sauce seems to appeal to all five senses, too.\u00a0 The only fair way to determine whether the quail are better by themselves or with the sauce is to request two orders, one sans sauce.<\/p>\n

\"Spinach
Spinach the way you’ve never had it<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second in our triumvirate of taste bud tantalizing appetizers was the Chipotle Shrimp<\/em>, four oxymoronic jumbo shrimp engorged with cream cheese, green onion and chipotle chiles in a sauce of garlic-lime Beurre Blanc, an ultra-rich, buttery sauce.\u00a0 There is a lot going on in this appetizer and all of it good.\u00a0\u00a0It’s a coalescence of flavors that brings out the best of each component.\u00a0 The shrimp seem sweeter, the cheese sharper, the chipotles smokier.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 This is one for the ages.<\/p>\n

A troika of\u00a0fantastic appetizers wouldn’t be complete without the Chop House’s Oysters Rockefeller,<\/em> a dish renown for its richness.\u00a0\u00a0Most Oysters Rockefeller I’ve had are reminiscent of Stovetop stuffing on a half-shell in comparison, even those I consumed by\u00a0the boatload in New Orleans.\u00a0 Perhaps that’s because the Chop House lets the oysters shine instead of blending them in a mishmash of ingredients (especially Hollandaise sauce)\u00a0that obfuscates their flavor.\u00a0 Oysters Rockefeller that taste like oysters, imagine that.\u00a0 Imagine six oysters on the half shell nestled on a bed of sea salt with two lemon wedges destined for your table.\u00a0 What you can’t imagine is just how good they are.<\/p>\n

\"Grilled
Grilled shrimp and mussels with Brussel Sprouts<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lighter appetizer, one invented by Tom and which has caught on like wildfire in Durango, is spinach the way you’ve probably never envisioned it.\u00a0 It’s deep-fried spinach<\/em> with a light, crinkly texture on top of which is sprinkled Regianno parmesan. The deep-frying eliminates none of the spinach’s acerbic taste, but it somehow seems more palatable, even quite good.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of our dining experience we appreciated was the wait staff which\u00a0is personable and professional, especially adept at pacing your meal\u00a0for optimum enjoyment.\u00a0 The serving pace they set allows you to fully enjoy an appetizer before the next course (or second appetizer)\u00a0is brought to your table.\u00a0 There’s\u00a0no competition among flavor contrasts here.\u00a0 Ask for Sean, as knowledgeable and attentive a waiter as you could ask for.<\/p>\n

In my inadequate for the task verbiage, I’ve hopefully conveyed that the Hamilton Chop House is nonpareil when it comes to appetizers.\u00a0 It also measures up quite well when it comes to spectacular entrees. Even if your appetizer melange includes shrimp, you might still want to try the grilled shrimp and scallops<\/em> entree that features three of each oversized shrimp and scallops grilled to perfection.\u00a0 Both are imbued with a faint smokiness and lay on a rich sauce of Saffron Beurre Blanc.\u00a0\u00a0In taste and texture, both the shrimp and scallops are absolutely flawless.<\/p>\n

While it seems that shrimp have become strictly a vehicle for cocktail sauce, these are shrimp you’ll want to linger, make that luxuriate\u00a0in tasting.\u00a0 It’s shrimp the way it’s supposed to taste, shrimp that snap when you bite into them the way they’re supposed to when fresh.\u00a0 The scallops are similarly wonderful with a slight firmness instead of the usual pillowy texture that seems to turn off some people.\u00a0 In terms of taste, think ethereal–very light and slightly sweet, but with enough flavor to let you know they come from the sea.<\/p>\n

\"New
New York strip with a Bordelaise Gorgonzola sauce<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carnivorous cravings will easily be sated with any one of the steak offerings, but for maximizing flavor discernment, go for the New York strip<\/em> with a Bordelaise sauce (made with red wine, shallots and veal stock) with gorgonzola\u00a0gently folded into it.\u00a0 This is an entree I’ve seen several restaurants attempt to execute correctly, but when all is said and done, it is the chef who should be executed–usually for not being able to meld seemingly disparate tastes into edibility.\u00a0 Although\u00a0Bordelaise and especially gorgonzola can overpower a cut of beef, Tom Hamilton\u00a0has perfected yet another culinary challenge.<\/p>\n

Not only\u00a0are the flavors complementary, but\u00a0they don’t detract from the “sweetness” of the beef in the least.\u00a0 It might help that the cut of beef is absolutely flawless–nary a sign of\u00a0sinew or fat anywhere.\u00a0\u00a0This New York strip is so tender you could cut it with a butter knife.\u00a0 It is also grilled to perfection, again\u00a0simply by char-broiling at the right temperature for the right amount of time.\u00a0 You’d think that little secret would have gotten around by now.<\/p>\n

It will probably come as no surprise to you that the Hamilton Chop House has also mastered desserts and in true fashion, they are superb.\u00a0 They are artistically crafted by Sherrie Martin and are a feast for your eyes as well as for your mouth.\u00a0 If you somehow manage to save room for it, the desserts are homemade daily and are just beckoning for you to try them.\u00a0 One such example is the bread pudding<\/em> which is light, moist and decadent, the three essential elements of outstanding bread pudding. This is one of the best!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fabulous bread pudding at the Hamilton Chop House<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hamilton Chop House and its affable and accomplished owner Tom Hamilton managed to make a huge fan out of me after only one visit, but it’s a visit we hope to repeat soon and often.\u00a0\u00a0As a result of that one visit, I “downgraded” other steak restaurants I had thought to be very good–which brings me back to a point\u00a0I made earlier about restaurant towns, a point that applies to restaurants as well.\u00a0 That is, there are good to very good steak restaurants, but only a very select few outstanding ones.\u00a0 The Hamilton Chop House is one of these.<\/p>\n

THE HAMILTON CHOP HOUSE<\/strong>
\n40290 Highway 550
\nDurango, Colorado<\/strong>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 21 August 2008
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 1
\nRATING<\/strong>: N\/R
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$$$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Chipotle Shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller, Five Spice Quail, Grilled Shrimp and Scallops, New York Strip with Bordelaise and Gorgonzola, Bread Pudding<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Land of Enchantment with its 121,356 square miles of deserts, mesas, rivers, mountains, forests, cities and villages is the fifth largest state in the country.\u00a0 In 2007, Albuquerque’s KOAT television station began a recurring series in which the station treated its viewers to an aerial perspective of many of the communities in its viewing area.\u00a0 That unique bird’s eye view\u00a0perspective was captured from Sky 7, the station’s\u00a0news helicopter. In 2008,\u00a0the station expanded its\u00a0coverage, sending\u00a0news anchor and New Mexico native Royale D\u00e1 skyward once again\u00a0to show viewers the challenges faced by the communities featured on the series and how they are dealing with those challenges.\u00a0 Royale was joined by city leaders from throughout the viewing area who boarded Sky 7…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[577,41,262,79,553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-closed-in-2010","category-colorado","category-closed","category-steak","category-across-america"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hamilton Chop House - Durango, Colorado (CLOSED) - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hamilton Chop House - Durango, Colorado (CLOSED) - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Land of Enchantment with its 121,356 square miles of deserts, mesas, rivers, mountains, forests, cities and villages is the fifth largest state in the country.\u00a0 In 2007, Albuquerque’s KOAT television station began a recurring series in which the station treated its viewers to an aerial perspective of many of the communities in its viewing area.\u00a0 That unique bird’s eye view\u00a0perspective was captured from Sky 7, the station’s\u00a0news helicopter. In 2008,\u00a0the station expanded its\u00a0coverage, sending\u00a0news anchor and New Mexico native Royale D\u00e1 skyward once again\u00a0to show viewers the challenges faced by the communities featured on the series and how they are dealing with those challenges.\u00a0 Royale was joined by city leaders from throughout the viewing area who boarded Sky 7…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nmgastronome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-22T00:17:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T18:18:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/Hamilton01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gil Garduno\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gil Garduno\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gil Garduno\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/423b9c3eeeb199e43ab4f1f584fa67bf\"},\"headline\":\"The Hamilton Chop House – Durango, Colorado (CLOSED)\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-22T00:17:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-31T18:18:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438\"},\"wordCount\":2698,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/08\\\/Hamilton01.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Closed in 2010\",\"Colorado\",\"Gone But Not Forgotten\",\"Steak\",\"United States\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=438\",\"name\":\"The Hamilton Chop House - 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Please take a few minutes to tell me what you think. 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