About Us

Nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, The Greenbriar Inn is an elegant restaurant, tavern and private event space located in the north Boulder countryside. For over 50 years we've been delighting nightly diners, wedding parties, and "foodies" from across Colorado- and across the United States. 

What began as a Continental-style restaurant with strong German and Austrian influences has evolved into an exceptional dining destination. Today, we offer classic American cuisine with innovative, seasonal touches designed to satisfy and delight sophisticated palates.

Winner of Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence for the last 25 years, our wine cellar features over 900 carefully chosen varietals from the greatest wine regions of the world. In addition to tableside sommelier-recommendations, we host several wine dinners throughout the year for your enjoyment.

Owned and operated by its former chef, The Greenbriar Inn continues its 53-year tradition of exceptional cuisine, fine wine, and elegant service in a unique, romantic country inn atmosphere.

Our Food

To us, classic American cuisine is fresh, simple food made from scratch with natural, pure ingredients. Our chef and his talented team create menus based on seasonally available and local ingredients while bringing modern, innovative touches to classic signature dishes.

We are proud to cook with the bounty of our three, on-site seasonal herb and produce gardens. On summer evenings, you may even see one of our chefs picking the ingredients for your meal! Our fresh garden items are also pickled, dried, and made into jams and compotes to use throughout the winter months. We also feature sustainably caught and farmed local proteins whenever possible and we even cure our own bacon and gravlax, smoke our own meats, and hand make our sausages.

And because a truly outstanding meal includes the best drinks and dessert, we infuse our spirits in house for specialty cocktails you won’t find anywhere else. In addition, our pastry chef makes all of our decadent desserts, delicious cakes, and brunch pastries from scratch right on site so you can enjoy a sweet ending to any meal.

The Grounds

Surrounded by picturesque mountain foothills, our surrounding 20 acres feature two ponds, a waterfall, striking woodlands, plus thriving vegetable, fruit and flower gardens. While strolling our grounds before or after a fine meal, you may catch a glimpse of deer, elk or rabbits. Or spot hawks, eagles or great blue herons flying across a clear, Colorado-blue sky.

Home to Greenbriar Falls, the property’s ponds are an impressive ecosystem, producing 360 gallons of rushing water a minute. The upper pond serves as a nursery and hatchery for the bigmouth bass and crayfish as well as brown and rainbow trout that flow via waterfall into the lower ponds. Cat tails and wild grasses around the water also provide a home for our resident frogs and turtles.

Greenbriar Inn Farm

When we planted our first garden 25 years ago, we had no idea we were setting a trend. Today, our farm includes over 7,000 square feet of pesticide-free, 100% natural gardens that give us everything from edible flowers to snap peas to fresh eggplant to five varieties of lettuce.

Our herbs and produce are grown using high-density farming techniques, organic fertilizers, and aged compost made from all non-protein organic matter from the restaurant and manure from local farmers. We round out our commitment to the environment with our comprehensive recycling and repurposing program.

 

In addition to produce and herbs, Greenbriar Inn Farm has now added chickens! Our lovely hens are raised just a few minutes down the road by The Greenbriar Inn owners, Phil and Emma. They are naturally raised with organic feed, produce scraps from our kitchen, treats and lots of love. Fresh eggs will be available to purchase whenever they are available at the restaurant and also used in some of our Sunday brunch dishes.

Visit our News and Events page to see what we are harvesting this week!

The History

The Greenbriar Inn has been a Boulder County landmark for over 100 years. Originally constructed in 1873 as a home, general store, and post office, the building was located in the heart of the town of Altona, Colorado.
Altona was established in 1863 as a supply and transportation center at the mouth of Left Hand Canyon for the gold miners of Jamestown and Ward. By 1916, due to the decline of mining in the canyon, the post office was closed and the town of Altona went with it.

In the early 1920s, the general store added gas pumps and remained open until 1960 when a house fire forced the store to close. In 1967, the property was purchased by restaurateurs in the hopes of creating a new and inspired dining option in the area.

Today, The Greenbriar Inn is home to nightly dinners, outdoor weddings and special events and our holiday dinners and brunches are enjoyed by guests from all points in Colorado.