This fall, when pondering where to go to watch your favorite team at a sports bar, you will no longer be forced to patronize an establishment that tries to pass limp, freezer-burned mozzarella sticks or a tepid mug of domestic beer as gameday food. At least, not in Boulder.
In August, a new sports bar will open at 2860 Arapahoe Avenue, giving sports fans a place to go, catch the game, and actually want to stay for a couple of rounds of food. Joe Manzanares and Food Network’s “Chopped” winner Oscar Padilla are opening BuffHouse, a new sports eatery at 2860 Arapahoe Ave.. The 10,000-square-foot space, which has sat vacant for four years, is being renovated into a comfort food destination with an Aspen lodge aesthetic and the high-energy atmosphere of a college game day tailgate.
The building at 2860 Arapahoe is one that many longtime Boulder residents will recognize. Over the decades it has housed an Azar’s Big Boy, a family-style chain restaurant that opened there in the 1960s; a Hooters that the Boulder community protested out of existence; a bar and restaurant called Barrel House; Harpo’s, a bar that lasted 15 years before relocating to Louisville; and most recently Ralphie’s Bar and Grill, which opened (and swiftly closed) right before 2020.
After Ralphie’s closed, the was purchased by Stephen Tebo, the founder of Tebo Properties and one of Boulder County’s most prominent commercial real estate developers, whose office is nearby. According to Manzanares, a Denver-based entrepreneur and BuffHouse co-founder, Tebo passed on selling the building to larger operators who wanted to significantly alter the space, opting instead to let a local team with a specific food vision take charge…