The family recently remodeled the building on the northwest corner of Market and Main streets in Cortez.
They’ve been painting, cleaning, remodeling, decorating and building, and the day they’ve been looking forward to for two busy months came on Saturday when the couple opened Loungin’ Lizard to a group of eager locals.
“People are so excited,” Amanda Puett said. “They are excited they don’t have to drive all the way up to Mesa Verde anymore to eat Brian’s food.”
Brian Puett is a top-rated chef and for the past six years has been the executive chef for Aramark at Mesa Verde National Park, overseeing all four restaurants on the mesa, including the acclaimed Metate Room. On a busy summer day, Puett would oversee the feeding of between 1,100 and 1,200 people.
Opening a restaurant brings mixed emotions.
“It’s surreal,” Brian Puett said. “It is stressful and exciting.”
Brian Puett specializes in Southwestern cuisine and has wanted to use mostly local ingredients, but when he was serving as many people as he had to a day up at Mesa Verde, that wasn’t always possible.
The Loungin’ Lizard will feature a chalkboard menu, which means the menu can change at any time.
“It will be a true culinary experience,” Amanda Puett said.
Brian Puett hopes to use local ingredients when he can. He can shop farmers markets and change the menu according to what’s in season or what looks good.
“It’s one of the beauties of having a chalkboard menu,” he said.
One of the most noticeable features added to the restaurant is the 30-foot-long granite bar.
The restaurant is also filled with cozy couches and intimate booths.
“We are a family-friendly restaurant,” Amanda Puett said.
To start out, Puett was planning a large lunch and dinner menu including, to name a few: white chicken chili soup, a spinach salad with prickly pear vinaigrette, candied walnuts and blue cheese.
For an appetizer, you can enjoy a baked Brie with razz-cherry chutney or prickly turkey, which is a tortilla-crusted turkey breast, or wild boar nachos. For dinner, you can order an elk shepherd’s pie, pan-seared rib eye or a cinnamon chili pork tenderloin (again, just to name a few.)
“People go crazy over the tenderloin,” Amanda Puett said.
The cinnamon chili pork tenderloin has a smoked jalapeño cream sauce and marinated grilled portobello.
Dinner prices will range from $13 to $28, and lunch combo prices will start around $11.
“We are a restaurant first, but if people want to stay and drink and eat appetizers, they are welcome,” Amanda Puett said.
Brian Puett graduated in 2003 from the Art Institute of Denver with a degree in culinary arts. In addition to being an executive chef at Mesa Verde National Park, he worked for Aramark as a chef at the Rainbow Room in Lake Powell.
He has also earned numerous awards.
In 2010, he was honored with the Award of Culinary Excellence from the American Culinary Federation Colorado Chefs Association. The Metate Room was one of the first six restaurants to ever receive the award, and to date, it is the only one in a national park.
Desserts will also be offered, including homemade ice cream, bread pudding, cakes and pies.
“So many amazing family and friends have helped us turn our dream into a reality,” Amanda Puett said.