Estes Park's New Breakfast Tables Belong to People Who Were Already Feeding the Town

"Here you can have good food and relax or gear up for the day," Vicki Haan says of the Kissing Moose Café, the restaurant she opened in late August at Expedition Lodge, 1701 N. Lake Ave. If you've lived in Estes Park any length of time, you probably know her food already. She came to town in 2018 and built a following with the Kissing Moose food truck, Mountain Berry Bakery and the Mountain Berry Event Center catering business.

Her story matches most of this year's new morning spots in town. The brunch room above Bird's Nest comes from the owner of Bird & Jim. The riverwalk coffee lounge that changed hands in August is now run by a ten-year veteran of a downtown shop. The coffee counter on Moraine Avenue sits in a house that rented rooms to boarders a century ago. Not many of these places are new arrivals. Most are local operators adding rooms, hours and dishes to work they were already doing here.

The Food Truck That Finally Got a Dining Room

The Kissing Moose Café serves breakfast and lunch every day from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its own FAQ and the Estes Valley Voice's October 2 profile both list those hours, which makes it the earliest regular start in this group by an hour.

The menu brings together the dishes that built Haan's following. There are her Haan-tons, wonton creations at $15.50 in Mexican, BBQ, Italian and Reuben versions. The cinnamon rolls are $5, and a slice of her New York-style cheesecake is $10. That cheesecake is also served at two high-end restaurants in Estes Park. For breakfast, biscuits and gravy run $17.50 and omelets $13.50 to $18.50. The avocado toast comes with bacon, sweet peppers, feta and eggs.

When the café closes for the afternoon, the Kissing Moose Saloon opens with brats, chili, burritos and nachos at $15.50 each. There's a large covered upper deck, and local musicians have played there, including a bluegrass pick on a recent Saturday night. The two sources disagree on saloon hours. The Voice reports 4 to 9 p.m. daily, and the café's FAQ says 3 to 10 p.m. daily, so call ahead before planning an evening around it.

A Brunch Room Built on Top of an Existing Kitchen

Brunch Above opened September 3 in the loft above Bird's Nest at 1221 High Drive, and you go in through the Bird's Nest entrance. The owner is John Witmer. In 2016 he helped conceptualize Bird & Jim, and he opened it as co-owner with Melissa Strong in 2017. This summer he bought out Strong's interest, and he now runs Bird & Jim, Bird's Nest and Brunch Above. Bird & Jim's executive chef, Mike Mieczkowski, helped design the menu with Chef Rob Corey, formerly of Seasoned Bistro. Corey is also Witmer's business partner.

Witmer calls it a "heroes menu," a short list of 11 entrées priced from $12 to $39. Here's how the prices compare:

• Pancakes and the Bourbon & Banana French Toast: $12 to $22 for one to three pieces
• Country Brunch with eggs, bacon, potato and an optional biscuit: $17
• Benedicts, all gluten-free because they're served on potato rösti instead of an English muffin: $25 to $34
• Shrimp and grits: $34
• Braised short rib hash: $38
• Beef Wellington: $39
• Biscuits, scones, cinnamon rolls and croissants from the starters menu: $5 to $9

The drink list has the "Manmosa," a $10 mimosa made with Lumpy Ridge draft beer added to the orange juice and vodka. Witmer says his staff knows gluten-free protocol and works to keep food safe for diners with celiac disease.

Pay attention to the schedule. According to the restaurant's own page, Brunch Above is open Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. It doesn't take reservations, and seating is limited. The page puts it this way: "Trust us, the wait in line is worth it." If you want a weekday brunch, plan around Thursday or Friday. Monday through Wednesday, the loft doesn't serve brunch.

A Riverwalk Coffee Lounge Under a Downtown Veteran

Raven's Roast Coffee Lounge at 164 E. Elkhorn Ave. got a new owner on August 1. Its entrance is on the back side of Riverside Plaza, facing the riverwalk. The new owner, Skyler Skaer, previously spent ten years managing the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in town.

Two details matter for residents. First, the shop gives a 10% discount if you tell them you live locally. Second, Skaer's mother runs a bakery, Best in Estes Baked Goods. In late August, the plan was for her to start delivering cinnamon rolls to the shop within a few weeks. Two residents who had already tasted them described them as "cinnamon rolls that will change your life." We haven't found anything confirming the rolls are in the case yet, so ask at the counter.

The lounge has soft chairs by a fireplace, a wall of windows and a dog-friendly patio with live music later in the day. Certified gluten-free pastries are sealed to prevent cross-contamination. The coffee is organic. Specials run $5.25 to $7.70, including the Colorado Campfire, an espresso drink with toasted marshmallow and salted-caramel syrup. The Voice listed summer hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That's the most recent schedule we could find, and off-season hours may differ.

The House on Moraine That Has Hosted Guests Before

The Wonderful Things Coffee Shop opened with the Bear and Bee Pottery Studio and Makerspace after a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, July 23. Both are in the restored house at 170 Moraine Ave. The building has a long history of serving the public. Walter Baldridge, Estes Park's first electrician, built the Dutch Colonial Revival home with his wife, Winnie, in the early 1920s, to a design by architect T. Robert Wieger. The Baldridges ran it as the Colonial Rooms boarding house, renting five upstairs bedrooms while Winnie ran a hand laundry in the basement. Later it was the Wonderful Things gift shop for decades, and at one point the Satirical World of Art Museum, which showed the paintings of Jose Perez.

The restoration was done by the Whimsadoodle Foundation. The nonprofit was formed after the 2024 death of Barb Marshall, an Estes Park resident and longtime patron of the arts, to carry forward her vision of connecting artists, businesses and the community. The first floor now has a gallery, a meeting space and a pottery studio with six new electric wheels, including some that spin in opposite directions for right- and left-handed potters. Bear and Bee's booking page offers two-hour wheel-throwing sessions, with availability on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Whimsadoodle describes the café simply as a place to enjoy a cup of coffee and hasn't published hours. The wine-and-tapas bar planned for the property is still listed as "Coming Soon." Of the five stops here, this one has the least certain schedule. It's also the only one where you can book time on a pottery wheel.

The One Newcomer on Elkhorn

Estes Perk is the clearest exception to the pattern, and it fills a gap the others don't. Aaron and Agnes Nelson opened it in late spring on the first floor of Park Place Mall at 145 E. Elkhorn Ave. It works as a coffee shop, pastry shop, sandwich shop and cocktail lounge. Its products come from outside town. The house-label coffee is made by a small private company in Oregon and costs $3 to $7 for 12 ounces. The pastries come from High Altitude in Fort Collins, including $3 miniatures like a coffee eclair.

The sandwich board runs $10 to $15. Behind the counter is a small, softly lit lounge styled like a speakeasy, where bartender Aaron Codling serves cocktails like the $15 "Aviation." In June, one resident told the Voice, "This is my go-to for great coffee without standing in a long line, so far." The June opening story listed hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. That's the latest schedule we found.

The Fall Schedule, From Earliest Start

Only the Kissing Moose Café and Brunch Above have fall schedules you can rely on today. For the other three, check before you head out on a weekday morning.

If you'd like to know how other parts of Estes Park life are changing, from new businesses downtown to the restored houses getting new uses, the team at Estes Park Team Realty lives here too. We're always happy to compare notes over a cup of coffee at one of these spots.