Silver Eagle Saloon the

Here's the straight up.

If you're looking for a yuppy place with fancy craft beers or looking for horribly over-priced mediocre food or a family establishment, this ain't your place.

However, if you're looking for a  biker'ish bar that, get this, allows smoking, and you feel like hanging out with what I'm gathering are unpretentious people and shooting a game of pool, then this is your place.

I hate cigarette smoking as much as I hate pretentious places, so this was a toss up for me, but if you don't want to be around smoking, come early.  

We were the first patrons of the early afternoon and enjoyed a smoke-free environment since we were the only customers.  We also enjoyed shooting the B.S. with the owner then treated ourselves to a game of pool.

Old school, dive tavern with early 70's decor--and thank goodness for that.

How to rate this place has a lot to do with what you're looking for I guess. It's pretty much dead in the winter. Old school tavern, catering to locals rather than tourists, which I can appreciate. It's also apparently grandfathered in as one of only around 20 bars in Colorado that you can still smoke in.

That said, it's smokey and reeks like an ashtray. And since I don't smoke I don't see that as a plus. If you smoke you'll probably like the opportunity to chainsmoke indoors just like old times.

Taps: Coors or Coors Light. That's it. If you drink watery American lagers you might like the place. I like real beer, so this wasn't a plus.

In the end the place wasn't for me. But it might be for you.

We went to this bar basically to play pool. It is the only place in town (that I know of) with a pool table. It was a good table too - the felt is not worn too badly, the cues are okay, etc. It is a Valley table in case anyone is interested in size (size does matter you know) - LOL!

The drinks were good - I had margaritas and my man had beer one night and Jameson the next. Hard to mess up any of those drinks.

The first night we had a lovely bartender who was on the work + travel program.  She was nice and made good drinks.  The other night we had the owner who is a bit standoffish and not that friendly. I would think if you own a bar you might try to be more friendly but who knows? Maybe you get sick of drunk people. It's very dark and dank in this particular bar but some folks like that. The atmosphere wasn't very joyful - but again if you want a quiet drink in a dark location this is your place!  Maybe it's a more happy place in the middle of summer???

I will likely be back to practice pool when I am in town again but honestly for a drink I'd rather hit one of the breweries, The Outlaw, O'Brien's or some of the other places before coming back to this one.  The only reason I would come back here is if I want to practice pool.