Moe, most people go back to the place they had their first date for an anniversary dinner. Gordon and Marilyn Pedersen wound up owning theirs.

They'd met while working summer jobs in Estes Park, back when Marilyn was still Marilyn Croissant. Their first date was at the Rock Inn.

They married in June 1957, moved to Chicago, and eventually returned to Colorado. Gordon's work took him through accounting, banking and a string of businesses. But his family still remembered that first date when they wrote his obituary in 2019.

First, Make Room for the Music

But let's back up a little, because the Rock Inn was bringing people together before Gordon and Marilyn got there. In 1937 it was a sandwich shop. In 1943, a dance hall was added. By then, coming out for a bite could turn into a whole evening.

And here's something to think about next time you're waiting for your food: that addition is today's dining room and stage. If you've sat there over supper, you've been sitting in the old dance hall.

The bands kept people coming. When the Rock Inn put out a call for old photographs, the memories came along too. Lulie M. remembers turning 18 in 1970 and coming often for the bands, dancing and 3.2 beer. Ann S. recalls driving up from Fort Collins with friends in their late teens. They'd stay at a motel and head home the next morning.

Ann also remembers young men racing hand over hand across the log beams.

“The beams?” Moe asked. “What was wrong with the dance floor?”

I couldn't answer for those fellows. I'd be taking a chair. The band sounds just fine from down here.

The music kept bringing people back. Then, in the spring of 1993, the Pedersen family gave them something else to do: cook their own supper. Chris Pedersen, Gordon's son, remembers that as the start of the cook-your-own era.

Gordon Had Been Busy With the Rocks

Now, this is where Gordon comes back into the story. While the restaurant was being changed into a steakhouse, he'd found a project of his own. He'd retired, and Chris remembers his father becoming absorbed in a pile of moss rock brought in for the work. The family couldn't quite work out what he was doing.

Then the shapes began to make sense.

A New York steak. A filet. A sirloin. A T-bone. A ribeye.

Gordon had made a steak menu out of stone. Chris dates the finished wall to March 1993. He also points out two steer heads in the stonework of the kitchen addition on the east side.

Think about that, Moe. Gordon had once come here on a first date. Now he was retired and turning a pile of rocks into steaks at the same restaurant.

Gordon's stone menu gave people something to notice when they got there. Chris had a way of getting them through the door in the first place.

Follow Your Nose

Chris remembers lighting the grills at 4:30. Twenty minutes later, he'd pour on some teriyaki sauce. The smoke drifted toward the campground behind the restaurant, and campers followed the smell.

You can almost smell supper in Chris's account. A little teriyaki sauce, a hot grill, and the campers' dinner plans were liable to change.

Once inside, customers chose their steak and gathered around a shared grill to cook it. You might arrive knowing nobody and have somebody to talk to before your steak was done. Cindy U. remembers her dad helping her cook a steak during a childhood vacation, and people getting to know one another around the grill.

“You went out for supper and cooked it yourself?” Moe asked.

“Only if you wanted to,” I told him. Chris says he cooked for customers who preferred to leave that part to him.

I figured that would reassure Moe. Sometimes going out for supper is about taking the night off.

AI illustration based on an interior photograph of the Rock Inn; not a documentary image.

There's Still a Song With Supper

Of course, you won't find that cook-your-own setup there today. Those years passed. But the music carried on. Musicians still play in the dining room. These days, the restaurant's regular bookings favor local solo performers and duos.

For Restaurant Week's opening weekend, Jon Pickett is on the calendar Friday, November 13, and Sarah Minto-Sparks on Saturday, November 14, both from 5 to 8 p.m. Check the calendar before you go.

The two wood-burning stoves still help warm the place in cold weather. Local artists' work hangs on the walls, and the restaurant says the artists receive all the proceeds when a piece sells. There are still reasons to look around between bites.

Restaurant Week runs November 13–22, with the Rock Inn among the participating restaurants. You'll find it at 1675 Colorado Highway 66. It uses an evening waiting list rather than reservations.

That's a lot of evenings under one roof, Moe. Gordon and Marilyn on a first date. Young people coming up for a band. Campers following Chris's teriyaki smoke. And somebody may walk in for the first time this week without knowing any of it.

If you go, have a look at the stonework before you sit down. Once you know about Gordon, that T-bone in the wall is liable to make you smile.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

The first date and later family ownership come from Gordon Pedersen's obituary. Building dates and the old dance hall's present use come from the Rock Inn's history page and Toast listing. Chris's steakhouse, grill and stone-wall stories, Cindy U.'s grill memory, and Ann S. and Lulie M.'s dance-hall memories are their own recollections in the two linked Facebook discussions, not independently established details.

Current music, art and visiting information comes from the restaurant; Restaurant Week details come from its organizers. Sources checked November 10, 2026. The history and recollections come from the linked sources, with a little conversation added to carry the story. The memories belong to the people who shared them. I'm glad they did. Buck.