YOUR AD HERE »

Breckenridge resident opens his 100th restaurant at Main Street Station

Staff preparing food at BoLD Restaurant and Bar during the opening party on Jan. 26.
Photo Courtesy of BoLD Restaurant and Bar |

Books line the shelves along the wall at BoLD Restaurant and Bar at Main Street Station in Breckenridge. Splashes of bright orange are mixed in amongst walls of darkly stained wood. Looking around, the restaurant has barely any traces of its predecessor, Ullr’s Sports Grill.

Terry Barbu, the co-owner and designer of BoLD, said that when he partnered with Dave and Marina Knell to open the new restaurant, he didn’t want people coming in and thinking it was just Ullr’s with a facelift. For him, putting together a new restaurant is like crafting a canvas into a unique masterpiece.

“To me this is art, and I would say you’re walking through one of my paintings when you come into one of my restaurants,” he said.



Barbu said that the more than 1,000 hardback books are meant to add pops of color in the space. He wanted the restaurant to feel both new and old.

Barbu was frequently in the restaurant during its construction phase, working alongside crews to get projects just right. Part of that is because his ideas for the restaurant are never stagnant.



“I start off with a flow pen, like a bird’s eye view of bar’s here, walls are here and then every day I stand back and look at it like, ‘You know what would be really cool, what if we do this,’” he said. “The design is something that comes over time.”

BoLD is Barbu’s 100th restaurant that he’s opened across the country, and his third location in Breck. He also owns Flip Side Breckenridge, as well as the Blue Stag Saloon. He opened his first restaurant at 23 years old. Barbu still runs three of those restaurants, with BoLD being added to the mix as the fourth. Many of the businesses that Barbu has worked on in his nearly 30-year career were failing restaurants that he went in and redesigned. He added that the design of a restaurant can often be just as important as food and service because it is what makes people feel comfortable spending time there.

BoLD will feature a full breakfast menu in the morning, followed by Mediterranean-inspired eats for lunch and dinner. Barbu said that the restaurant is striving for fast service, so that early diners can come in and grab a quick meal before heading to work.

“Our goal is to get food out in eight to 12 minutes in the morning, so that people can come in, eat breakfast and get out of here quickly,” Barbu said. “I think that one of the problems with the town of Breckenridge is that a lot of the breakfast places, one they’re small, they only have 50, 60 seats in them, and two is it just takes a little bit of time to get your food.”

The restaurant has a focus on freshness, with no pre-made food items. The menu also features vegetarian and vegan options.

BoLD had its grand opening celebration on Jan. 26, and was open for happy hour and dinner the next day.

The restaurant was one of the last spaces to be filled in Main Street Station, which was floating at just 50 percent occupancy in April of 2015. Barbu said that he hopes to help bring more business to the area, which is offset from the rest of Main Street in Breckenridge.

“Anything we can do to make Main Street Station as a whole busier, is what our goal is,” Barbu said. “I don’t think it takes one business or another, it takes all of us moving forward to make something happen here.”


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.