Blu Cow owner faces final day of business with gratitude, anger

Blu Cow owner Simone Larese is hosting a “black party” on Saturday, in which guests are invited to visit the restaurant dressed in black to mourn the loss of the Vail institution, before it closes down for good on Sunday.

The best outfit will win a box of Larese’s coveted Swiss Hot Dogs, the distinctly flavored sausage that has been the restaurant’s secret to success since the 1960s when her father, Ernst Larese, first started the business. The party takes place from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and Blu Cow’s final day of business will be Sunday, closing at 6 p.m.

Larese says the outpouring of support surrounding her situation, in which she is being asked to leave her space by April 15, has been immense.

“It’s been really heartwarming to see how special this business that my dad started building 50 years ago has become to people,” Larese said.

The heartfelt messages have helped balance out her ongoing anger at the situation, in which she feels the redesign of the building, which will result in the loss of her restaurant, is a mistake that will damage the character of Vail Village.

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“What angers me the most is listening to these meetings where they talk about redesigning the heart of the village in a way that preserves the Tyrolean look and feel,” she said. “They used us to create the Tyrolean aesthetic, and now they’re just discarding us when we’re an actual Austrian family who helped bring that Tyrolean style to Vail in the first place. It just feels like such a slap in the face.”

Larese’s father, Ernst, was an Austrian immigrant who moved to Vail in the 1960s, getting into the restaurant business in an area of town east of the parking structure that still bears the name Blue Cow Chute today. Over the years he switched locations several times and perfected a type of sandwich he called the Swiss Hot Dog, and that sandwich, as well as the Blu Cow restaurants in which it has been found over the years, have become associated with Vail as a unique flavor the town can call its own.

Larese says she is actively looking for a new location, and hopes to find something in Vail. But in that search, she says she has come to realize the restaurant has become a favorite among skiers who visit several ski towns in Colorado each season, not just Vail.

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“I’ve been contacted by other ski towns asking if I would consider moving the restaurant there,” she said. “And I do think it could work. I think the ownership class here, the landlords of Vail, in general have shown a lack of respect for the culture and character of the town, and I think the leadership, the people in power are showing weakness in dealing with it. So I wouldn’t be opposed to moving the business somewhere else but of course I’m looking here first because this is my home and I still do love the place despite how disheartened I am by all of this.”