Gil Asakawa
Audio By Carbonatix
One of Colorado’s most well-known roadside attractions is the South Park Coney Island hot dog stand off Highway 285 in Bailey. Over the years, it’s gone from a fun locals’ hangout, to a mid-trip break for in-the-know travelers taking the back road to Summit County, to a pop-culture phenomenon — because the creators of South Park featured it in several episodes of the animated series (and the owner added South Park to the joint’s name).
But as good as the hot dogs are, and as kitschy as the hog-dog-out-of-water irony is of eating at a Coney Island-themed establishment in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, there’s always been something missing. Beer.
Soon, that glaring omission will be fixed with the addition of the Boardwalk Tavern, a small bar opening in the compound that houses the hot dog stand. Owner-proprietor Alec Crisafulli, a friend of Coney Island owner Jay Aigner, agreed to rent the space that formerly housed the eatery’s gift shop (which is moving to a different unit in the same building), in order to add the option of selling beers without requiring the hot dog stand to go through a liquor license permitting process.
“I had known Jay from a while back, and he kind of approached me with this opportunity of looking to make that spot a little bit more of a tourist destination than it already is,” says Crisafulli. “We thought beer and hot dogs kind of go hand in hand, and we’ve just kind of been planning it from there.”
The Boardwalk Tavern will offer beer, wine and cocktails, along with non-alcoholic drinks. While Crisafulli says there may be some limited food items as well, the idea from the start was to complement the hot dog stand, not compete with it. That includes “leaning into the kitschy-ness of it all” with a Coney Island boardwalk theme, he notes, as well as a shared outdoor space and even a serving window where hot dog diners can grab a drink without needing to go inside.
“We anticipate a mix of outdoor and indoor traffic,” Chrisafulli says. “We’re trying to cater to both crowds — the people who want to actually sit down for a bar experience and hang out, and then also the tourists passing through who just want to get a beer with their hot dogs.”
Boardwalk Tavern will include a few nods to the relatively new South Park theme, he adds, but will primarily focus on the Coney Island aesthetic. He and Aigner knew each other from working in the cannabis industry, where they built both the friendship and the trust needed to join forces in this way. Crisafulli is renting space from Aigner and running the bar himself. But it’s clear that the bar is meant to support the main draw, which is the hot dog stand.
“There’s this built-in customer base with the Coney Island stand, and obviously beer and hot dogs just seem to go hand in hand, so that seemed like an obvious fit there as well,” Chrisafulli asys. “We knew that we worked together well, and we knew that we both could do a job, you know, as opposed to just being friends. So that’s why he approached me with it. Since I’ve known him and trusted him, I felt like it was like a great opportunity.”
This is Crisafulli’s first bar venture as an owner, but he worked in food service in bars back east. His wife, Allison, will be running the bar with him.
The Boardwalk Tavern is currently in the buildout stages, but Chrisafulli already has the liquor license and other permitting in hand for once that process is complete; he’s eyeing a July 1 opening if all goes as planned.
“We’ve been in Colorado a long time,” Crisafulli says. “I grew up out here on the Front Range, and we both dreamed about moving up to the mountains someday. So we’re really excited to become part of the Bailey community up there. It’s very much a dream come true for us.”
The Boardwalk Tavern is located at 23 Old Stagecoach Road in Bailey, and plans to open in July. For more information, follow it on Instagram at @boardwaslktavernco.
