Remembering Trail Dust Steak House: Steaks, Live Music, Cut Neckties and That Giant Slide

Long before dinner in Denver became about craft cocktails and Instagram-worthy plates, there was Trail Dust Steak House — a place where you could order a steak, dance to a live band, lose your necktie and take a giant slide from one floor to another.

For generations of Coloradans, Trail Dust wasn’t simply a restaurant. It was an experience.

The original Trail Dust opened in Texas in 1973, built around a simple formula of steaks, hearty portions, Western atmosphere, live country music and dancing. The concept was a hit, and within about a year and a half, Trail Dust expanded to Colorado. Eventually, the Denver area would have two locations, including one in Westminster and another at 7101 South Clinton Street near the Denver Tech Center.

And there was absolutely nothing subtle about the place.

One of Trail Dust’s most famous traditions involved neckties. Show up wearing one and you risked having employees pull out a pair of scissors, cut it off and add it to the collection of severed ties displayed around the restaurant. The gimmick became such a recognizable part of Trail Dust that decades later, it’s still one of the first things former customers remember.

But for kids, the real attraction was the slide.

The enormous indoor slide stretched from the upper level down toward the main floor, turning a family steak dinner into something that felt closer to an amusement park. Adults could get in on the action, too, and countless Colorado kids grew up remembering trips to Trail Dust as much for racing toward that slide as for anything they ate.

Then there was the food. Trail Dust built its reputation around steaks and big, hearty servings served in a casual Western setting. Dinner could easily turn into an entire night out, with live bands taking the stage and customers hitting the dance floor between courses. The combination of steakhouse, honky-tonk and family entertainment made Trail Dust unlike just about anything else in town.

Eventually, though, Colorado’s Trail Dust era began coming to an end. The Westminster location closed first, and the property later became part of the redevelopment of the former Westminster Mall area.

The South Denver location held on longer. After roughly 30 years in business, Colorado’s final Trail Dust Steak House closed on Christmas Eve 2009. The former restaurant was later converted into other businesses, ending one of the Denver area’s most memorable restaurant runs.

More than 15 years later, Trail Dust still comes up whenever longtime Coloradans start talking about restaurants they wish they could visit one more time. Maybe it was the steaks. Maybe it was the live music. Maybe it was watching Dad’s necktie get chopped in half.

But chances are, if you were a kid, you remember one thing above everything else:

That slide.