SOUTH FORK — Candie Greaser and her husband, Rhys, had a dream to open a restaurant and goals in place to do it at a certain moment in their lives, so when the time came to put their dreams in motion, the couple hit the ground running and began to look for their restaurant.

“It was a dream we have always had, and we were ready to find our restaurant,” Candie said.

After months of searching, Candie and Rhys set their sight on a building located farther north on the Front Range but no matter how hard they tried, the deal just would not go through. It was at that time that they began to look elsewhere and being originally from Durango, Candie mentioned South Fork to her husband and it was from that moment forward that the couple and their three children had their stars align.

“We looked at a few places around town that were up for sale but once again, nothing seemed to work out. Either appraisals were behind, problems came up with the buildings or things just didn’t seem to fit. Then one day the Old Fire House restaurant came up for sale, we took one look, and it was like our stars aligned. This was our restaurant,” Candie said.

After a few weeks of working out the kinks and perfecting the details, Candie and her family opened Candie’s Firehouse Restaurant.

“We wanted to be sure to offer fresh cuisine, never frozen food. We adjusted our menu to fit the community because if one restaurant is doing barbecue really well, then why would I want to do barbecue. We wanted elevated, approachable food so, after a few adjustments, we opened our doors,” she said.

Unfortunately, as circumstances would have it, Candie’s Firehouse had one more detail to work through just after their opening day.

“Our cooler went down almost the next day and because we do all of our food fresh, we had to close until a new cooler could come in,” she said.

Word had already started to spread about the delicious food being served at the new restaurant and the support that came pouring in while the repairs were being made was beyond anything the Greasers expected.

“The community here is just amazing, and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to be," Candie said. "I was worried people would take time coming back after we reopened but it was nothing like that. We wanted to do something all our own here, help make South Fork a true dining destination and I can see the potential, from my perspective anyway. I want to see the other restaurants in town do the same thing. If you’re going to be in this business, be the best. Everyone should always be the best.”

Candie and her husband have some plans in place to expand the menu to welcome guest chefs from around the country, hope to offer specials and events for holidays like St. Patrick’s Day and for Valentines, a reservation-only special menu.

Candie’s Firehouse is located at 30B Jackson St. in South Fork.