Laporte landmark Vern's Place updates look, menu - The Coloradoan
If you're not a regular at this Northern Colorado dining institution, you might not notice the $250,000 renovation that spruced up the dining room, replaced decades-old equipment in the kitchen, and added a full bar menu and an outdoor patio with... You still can do that at Vern's Place in Laporte, but you can also now stay for dinner with drinks, and even drive up from Fort Collins to make a night of it. At least, that's the hope of the restaurant's owners after their costly but conservative... "Our locals want a nice place instead of a roadside gas station cafe," co-owner Valery Lanteri said of her family's decision to change the 69-year-old restaurant's decor and hire a new chef to update the menu. By the time the business became a part of Valery Lanteri's life, in 1976, it was on its fourth set of owners. Valery was 8 in 1976, when her parents sold their house to buy the restaurant and move their family into its basement apartment. She was 22 when the restaurant was destroyed by a fire in 1990. Valery and her husband, Nick, helped her parents rebuild it that year and became more active in the business when it re-opened a year later. Seventeen years later, the Lanteris, both 47, still sit at their regular booth in a corner. Source: www.coloradoan.com
