Welcome El Dorado!
You can’t miss the golden accents both inside and out, starting with the front door at 358 Main St.
A new bohemian psychedelic cowboy lounge in the heart of the Carbondale Creative District (formerly Batch). Owner Mike Arnold is passionate about keeping this space a community center with lots of local pride.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background:
“I’m originally from New Orleans, I know I don’t sound like it, but I am. When I was a teenager my father got a career opportunity in the gold and copper industry to move to Papua New Guinea, and we went. We were poor, scared and confused but there we were, and it ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to our family. When you travel you learn a lot– I have a lasting memory of seeing a family in Jakarta living out of a cardboard box sharing a bowl of noodles, and suddenly realizing that Nintendo game I wanted or the bike we couldn’t afford no longer mattered, it was an eye-opening experience.
I eventually came back to the states and went to college, the traditional route. I started working at a giant corporate consulting firm, and it wasn’t for me, so I started my own merger and acquisitions business and ran that for a while until Covid and I realized my job was boring, and I was away from my family a lot. We lived in Stapleton (Denver), I was constantly traveling, and while I don’t want to disparage Stapleton, I just didn’t feel a lot of passion there. Fast forward to when business completely ceased, we had a slap in the face moment of ‘What, are we going to wait until we’re 70?’ I sold my business to my partners and we moved up here in May of 2020. Since then I was trying to purchase a business, and certainly wasn’t looking for a bar or real estate, I did my due diligence. Finally through a conversation on the chair lift of all places I was told about a place on Main Street coming available, and the ball just started rolling from there.”
Logo and branding by local artist Lindsay Jones
We applaud your efforts in keeping your partnerships and collaborations local –why Carbondale?
I’m a math person and there were a few things that needed to add up (for my wife). Elevation – anything above 8,000 feet has two additional months of winter, and doesn’t typically have a Whole Foods or nice new City Market for groceries and quality ingredients. If you want to get a nice meal or see a concert you can buzz up to Aspen. For art and fun local events, there’s culture in Carbondale, way more than other normal mountain towns, there’s nothing like this. There’s no way I could’ve found so many local artists* to help me with branding, marketing, my sign, my crazy Brian wall, you know all this interior design, I mean there’s just no way. There was only one answer, Aspen wasn’t our vibe. There’s real people here – I’ve met more quality people here in 3 years than in 20 years in Denver. We have a lot of visions for artistic opportunities within and around the building in the near future.”
[*Tess Ebert marketing, Lindsay Jones branding, Dave Kodama sign, Brian Colley “Crazy Brian Wall,” Ramsey Fulton architect, Mark Burrows cocktail ingredients, Aly Sanguily consulting and interior design, just to name a few.]
Custom banquettes and seating designed by Leila Schwyhart. Interior design and decor by former owner (Batch) Aly Sanguily and Chris Rullet.
Tell us about the El Dorado concept:
"Once we got the place we were struggling to come up with an idea of how to something cool for Carbondale. F&B (food and beverage) is tough, I’ve never been in F&B but it’s high failure rate and it’s low margins, and it’s hard.
We started exploring the idea, and I wanted to hire local. Everyone who has touched this place is local, 100%. The name had not come around yet. We wanted this place to be a 1920s bohemian psychedelic cowboy bar, that’s as concise as I can describe it. As we moved along, I came in one day and felt that it was starting to look too bougie, and I told my friend Chris, ‘We’ve got to funk this up, and make it weird. I want it to be approachable.’ One night, I couldn’t sleep and I started watching some old cowboy movies like I used to do with my old man, I think High Noon. I knew I wanted the name to be western and Spanish, and El Dorado kept popping up. It clicked after I (re)watched The Outsiders- the movie about the greasers and rebel kids. I related to that, I always pushed it but was also a nerd. I resonate with the key phrase ‘Stay gold Ponyboy’ which actually comes from a Robert Frost poem stating that nothing gold lasts forever, stay gold as long as you can.”
From the left: Jess, Ben (GM), Tess, Grace, Mike (owner)
How are you supporting the community? Can the CCD support you?
"A couple of things on that. When you involve 15 local people on your team, their face lights up when they come in – there’s a sense of pride that you create when you involve local people. That alone is probably worth the effort, but the second thing is local ownership, especially on Main Street. They [buildings and businesses] need to stay in local people’s hands or we’re going to have a Starbucks across the street.
I call this 'elevating without isolation,’ how can I serve a bottle of wine for $40 but also reach the demographic that wants a Bud? Local ingredients are more expensive, but they’re worth it. We’re not in competition with other businesses– when the whole of Carbondale works, everything works. We want to be that community center. I’m in a unique position to support outward expression. I will happily donate the space for charities to raise money.”
Find El Dorado at 358 Main Street. Follow them on Instagram @eldoradostaygold