Silver Grill Cafe owners purchase Vern's Place in Laporte

Editor's note: An earlier version of our Vern's Place photo gallery incorrectly identified one of the gallery subjects. The person in the ninth photo is Dan Silhasek. Dan's last name was misspelled in the cutline of the Coloradoan's original 1991 story on Vern's Place's reopening.

After nearly half a century in the same family, Vern's Place has a new owner.

The Laporte eatery — which opened in 1946 as a roadside cafe, gas station and tackle shop — was sold to Silver Grill Cafe owners Alan and Jackie Jantzen in March, Alan told the Coloradoan on Monday.

The ownership change means the end of an era for Val Lanteri, whose parents, Harvey and Dinah Kittel, purchased Vern's Place in 1976. Val and her husband, Nick Lanteri, have owned the business for 25 years but helped operate it for more than 30 — seeing it through the rerouting of U.S. Highway 287, a disastrous fire in 1990, a $250,000 renovation in 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

After nearly a lifetime of memories at the Laporte landmark, Val said she and Nick were excited to hand the reins over to the Jantzens, who Nick described as "salt-of-the-earth-type people" who understand what Vern's Place means to the community.

"We're happy to be retired," Nick added. "It's been a long road ... a great road."

The history of Vern's Place

It all started with a ring-necked pheasant.

Well, kind of.

After coming home from serving in World War II in 1945, Willard Nelson took his brother, Vern Nelson, for a drive up U.S. 287 west of Fort Collins.

Willard dreamed of opening a little roadside business and took his brother out to find a potential location for one, Willard told the Coloradoan in 1983.

While driving through Laporte, a big ring-necked pheasant flew out from some nearby swampland, crossing right in front of the brothers' car.

Willard took it as a sign. He got a $250 loan from First National Bank to purchase that 1 ½-acre slice of swampland and Vern's Place was born. Originally a small brick building, it opened in 1946 as a cafe, gas station, and roadside stop for fishing tackle and other equipment.

Despite being named after Vern, Vern's Place was largely run by Willard and his wife, Ruby Lee, who added a sportsman's shop to the business, filled in much of its nearby swamp, and built a mobile home park and liquor store on the site before selling it in early 1960s, according to the Coloradoan archive.

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After it changed hands a few more times and underwent a renovation to its front facade, the Kittels purchased the business with another Fort Collins couple — Wes and Bertha Nicholson — in 1976, other archived Coloradoan articles show. The couples ran the business for about five years until the Kittels became the sole owners, Val recalled.

When asked why her parents bought Vern's Place, she chuckled.

"You know, that's a good question," she said, adding that while neither Harvey nor Dinah had any restaurant experience, they had friends in the service industry and thought it would be a good investment.

The Kittels moved into a basement apartment under Vern's Place. It was a stark departure from their previous house with acreage and horses, said Val, who was 8 years old at the time.

Harvey and Dinah threw themselves into Vern's Place — cooking on the line, learning its ins and outs, and bringing in baker Chuck Thomas, who introduced Vern's Place's now-legendary cinnamon rolls to the roadside restaurant in 1977, previous Coloradoan reports show.

After nearly 45 years in business, Vern's Place was dealt a crushing blow when sparks from a faulty heating unit on its roof ignited a fire in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, 1990. The blaze ripped through the Laporte landmark, destroying the building in a few hours, according to old Coloradoan coverage.

Harvey and Dinah asked Val and Nick — then newlyweds — to help rebuild Vern's Place. They reopened it in early 1991 and purchased the business in 1998. Harvey died in 2002 and Dinah followed in 2016.

What is the future of Vern's Place (and its cinnamon rolls)?

In their more than 30 years running Vern's Place together, Nick said he and Val came to see its staff and regulars as family.

"We grew up here," Nick said, noting that he and Val have been best friends since they were in the third grade together at Cache la Poudre Elementary School. "We've been embedded in this community for a long time."

"We ran (Vern's Place) for 30-some years, and I had been there since I was a child," Val said. "You know, we were just ready to relax and spend some time with our kids and our grandkids and do some traveling."

The Jantzens had purchased Silver Grill Cafe back in 2021, with Alan previously working as the longtime director of operations for Hot Corner Concepts — the Fort Collins restaurant group behind Austin's American Grill, Comet Chicken, Moot House and Big Al's Burgers & Dogs.

Two years after taking over the Silver Grill, Alan said the timing was right to purchase Vern's Place this March.

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"We tend to love these older restaurants that have such wonderful followings," Alan said, referencing Silver Grill Cafe's 90-year history in downtown Fort Collins.

"When we bought Silver Grill, if (our customers) weren't eating at Silver Grill they were eating at Vern's, and if they weren't eating at Vern's they were eating at Silver Grill," he added. "A lot of people shared a passion about these places. When you find a loyalty like that, that's a special thing."

Much like their approach at the Silver Grill Cafe, Alan said he and Jackie plan to keep things largely the same at Vern's Place, with no changes in store for the restaurant's staffing, character or menu.

When asked if they had any plans to streamline cinnamon roll operations at Silver Grill Cafe or Vern's Place — Fort Collins and Laporte's two most cinnamon-roll-centric restaurants — Alan laughed.

"That's the million-dollar question," he said.

The million-dollar answer?

"No. Those will never change," Alan said emphatically about the restaurants' respective cinnamon roll recipes.

Since the big ownership change earlier this year, one other thing has stayed the same at Vern's Place.

Every morning Val and Nick still come in for breakfast — sitting in their regular booth in the corner.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Silver Grill Cafe owners purchase Vern's Place in Laporte