I knew the minute I saw the Stagecoach Inn from across the street that I’d probably be having dinner there after my ride up Pike’s Peak. A look at the menu posted in front clinched it: I’d be dining on ‘Slow-Roasted Buffalo’.

The Inn is a rambling, rustic but thoroughly comfortable establishment created from two old buildings. The menu cites ‘credible accounts’ that the log cabin housing the entry parlor and lounge were once the summer home of author and poetess Helen Hunt Jackson. The barn-like structure housing the main dining room was once a water-powered electric generating plant. As you’d expect, old weapons, Native American crafts and other old-West artifacts lined the walls. But once at the table, one found attractive red linen tablecloths and napery, quality silverware, and other accoutrements of fine dining. The reds of the table linens, combined with off-white walls and dark, polished wood beams and furniture, created a relaxing atmosphere for dinner and pre-dinner cocktails.

And then, the menu!

Shall we try ‘Crab Stuffed Rocky Mountain Trout’? Or ‘Campfire Trout dredged in seasoned corn meal and pan fried in Canola oil’? How about ‘Prairie Pie’ --- Chicken stew ‘ringed with Stagecoach mashed potatoes covered with a pie crust and baked’? Meat-fanciers could opt for ‘Pioneer Pie’, a similar dish made with buffalo. House specialties, for VERY SERIOUS meat-lovers, consisted of:

--Santa Fe Steak: ‘Top sirloin smothered with pork green chili sauce and topped with cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses’;

--Sizzling Steak: ‘Top sirloin on a bed of red peppers, mushrooms and onions topped with fried leeks and finished with Burgundy wine’;

--Mountain Man Special: ‘6 oz. Prime Rib, 6 oz. Buffalo and a Buffalo Sausage’!

My ‘Old Fashioned Buffalo Pot Roast’ supposedly consisted of only eight ounces, but I was full before I could finish. A careless diner could have mistaken it for beef stew, but the meat was stringier and moister, nearly black in color, and had a dark, earthy flavor that beef couldn’t duplicate. A nice touch to this otherwise-overfilling meal: Deliciously flavored wild rice instead of the customary potato.

Stagecoach Inn had full bar service with, judging from my own cocktails, a well-experienced bartender. There was a generous wine list, with many more selections offered by the glass than one finds in many restaurants. Cocktail and wine prices were perhaps two-thirds of what I’d have had to pay near downtown Chicago.

I’d planned to return for a second night, but foul weather kept me away. Re-reading the menu after returning home made me regret that I hadn't just said ‘Heck with the weather’ and gone anyway.