The Yukon Tavern has made a delicious comeback.

A bar and grill with a loyal following since the early 1980s, its decline could be followed online, starting in 2006, when reviews dove from praise to pans. Most commenters noted either unclean conditions or unfriendly staff/management.

Consider that history dead and the tavern reborn under its new name, the Yukon Rock and Roll Bar and Grill. New owners have flushed out the cobwebs and crumbs, given the lumberjack in the logo a new ax in the form of a 1980s electric guitar, and created a menu of solid (though not stunning) bar food that puts it on course to regaining its crowd of regulars.

Highlights: Ambience

It doesn’t look like much from the street. In fact, it might look a little “where’s my pepper spray?” from the street, but the interior of the Yukon is welcoming and surprisingly large, with a cavern of a back room that extends past five pool tables to a stage, where the bar hosts live music and karaoke.

The hewn-wood stools and tables still evoke the geographic Yukon, but as the new name suggests, the walls are now hung with rock ’n’ roll records, guitars and other memorabilia. It could get very Hard Rock Café very quick, but there’s a little edge to the theme because the rock featured is mostly of the 1980s big-hair/long-beards/tight-pants variety. Def Leppard. ZZ Top. Aerosmith.

The modern red light fixtures bathe the room in the right amount of cozy dimness, but aren’t there to hide any dust bunnies or grime. One set of dirty silverware aside, I felt pretty comfortable with the housekeeping that I could see.

In fact, I just felt really comfortable in general. Too often, dining out comes with a big helping of pretension. It’s a breath of fresh air to find this kind of hangout, a place to just be, leave your shirt untucked, kick back some beers and laugh with friends. On a Friday night, the atmosphere relaxed my tense shoulders away from my ears and elevated my spirits almost immediately.

Highlights: Menu

My first hint that the Yukon was going to make me happy: 14 beers on draft, all available by the pitcher, except Guinness. (The Guinness tap was out of order last week, sadly.) There’s also a full bar and happy hours specials daily from 4 to 7 p.m.

We toasted over a plate of sweet potato fries ($2.95) and the Real Deal Nachos ($8.50). Available with traditional or sweet potatoes, Yukon calls its spuds “colossal fries,” which means the thick-cut potatoes are batter-coated before being fried. The result is deliciously crispy and crowd-pleasing.

The nachos have a foundation of thick, better-than-average tortilla chips, topped with shredded chicken or ground beef, olives, sour cream and lots of jalapeños.

While actually an entrée, the Dog Sled trio of sliders ($6.95) is a great sharable option. Like all its burgers, the sliders are made with Angus beef and were served pinkly medium rare — and each with different cheeses and specialty toppings, such as mushrooms, just as we requested.

The Angus beef is also tasty smothered in homemade green chili in the Sloppy Sombrero ($7.95). The perhaps-tomato-heavy chili had a nice burn and tender chunks of pork, though it won’t dethrone my favorite green chili any time soon.

Also homemade is the blue cheese dressing, which I poured on the Cobb Salad ($7.95). Freshness is vital to me and is always suspect in bar food — especially those with reputations about kitchen quality — but the Yukon’s salad vindicated the eatery. Both the lettuce and the smoky bacon were fresh and crisp, the one chilled and the one still warm.

Service

Sometimes you have to give a new server a break, or at least I make a habit of doing so, but the more-experienced staff was knowledgeable, attentive and friendly. The speed of the kitchen was, perhaps, five minutes more than average. Drinking a beer out of a foggy, frosty mug, however, I was far from anxiously checking my watch.

Drawbacks

The corporately sourced stuff is all here, frozen and ready to be deep-fried. The seafood platter ($10.95), with fried cod and fried shrimp, is one such dish. It’s serviceable. It will do. They could be better, and good fish and chips is something that puts a tavern on the map.

While my visits didn’t have any major issues with cleanliness, the last El Paso County Health Department inspection did have some red flags, mostly issues dealing with staff education and maintenance. With the Yukon’s history, my opinion is that it should be hypervigilant and aim to be beyond reproach about such issues. Management informs us that all the issues have been taken care of and that the upcoming re-inspection report will confirm that.

I will check back at the county website to see the results of the re-inspection, certainly. Next time, I’m planning a happy hour, though, the Yukon Rock and Roll Bar and Grill will be on my short list.

Mexican comfort bar food. Oh, yeah. Photo by PHOTOS BY KATE JONUSKA

Picasa 3.0

Photo by

Photo by

Picasa 3.0