El Rancho Brewing

El Rancho’s story begins in 1948, when the restaurant was built by the Jahnke family. The early establishment sought to fill the role of a community-oriented restaurant in Evergreen, that could also draw in motorists and tourists from US-40. A particularly notable out-of-towner to have enjoyed El Rancho was U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who frequently visited from his hunting lodge just north of nearby Idaho Springs. In 1953, the Jahnkes sold the building to Mildred and Ray Zipprich. The Zippriches were successful pie distributors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their son-in-law, Paul McEncroe and his family operated El Rancho until 1988 and during this time the restaurant cemented its status as a Front Range mainstay. One peculiar and interesting item that the McEncroe family contributed to the legacy of El Rancho was the establishment of a U.S. Post Office branch, that existed for a period of time in the same building as El Rancho, in 1956.