CASTLE ROCK • Vying for the eye’s attention now along the downtown square is the development down the street: high-rise, luxury apartments and chic boutiques and Instagram-worthy eateries with cool murals, cocktails and small bites.

But on the corner, the square building of local stone prevails.

This is Castle Cafe, almost as much of a landmark as the natural namesake of the place between Colorado’s biggest metros.

Castle Cafe is something of a fortress in the sense of this booming town’s old aesthetic. In the sense of character and soul, it’s something of a fortress as well.

“As far as the locals go, this is where you go to feel like home,” says Carlos Finn, born and raised here and now managing the restaurant. “It’s kind of a blast from the past. Not much has changed here.”

Perhaps most importantly: The family style, pan-fried chicken dinners have not changed. The bird still comes “wet and juicy,” as a Denver magazine writer found not long after the restaurant’s debut in 1995, and coated in a salt-and-pepper flour mix turned golden and crispy.

The chicken is still crackling when it reaches the table. The platter comes with soup or salad and bowls of veggies and mashed potatoes, to go with a boat of thick, country gravy. Oh, and a basket of big, house-baked rolls. That recipe hasn’t changed either.

“Mama, I’m comin’ home,” remarked that Denver writer nearly 27 years ago.

Castle Cafe was the vision of a well-known restaurateur from the city, Tom Walls.

He had his eye on the irresistible building in Castle Rock. It was most famously a hotel and bar back in the 1890s, a rowdy gathering place for quarry workers, cowboys, railroaders and travelers between Denver and Colorado Springs. A century later, Walls’ idea was to revive the cafe that existed several decades prior, complete with a similar neon sign.

And complete with the kind of chicken he knew from old, family-owned halls back in his native Kansas City. Walls knew it had to be prepped by hand, made to order over hot, cast-iron skillets.

“Do you know what a pain in the butt is it to do pan-fried chicken to order?” Walls remarked in that magazine article not long after opening Castle Cafe.

No pain, no gain seems to be the motto still today. The message atop the menu, making unfamiliar customers aware of wait times: “We take ‘homemade’ to heart.”

It’s not just chicken here.

The brisket and pulled pork from the smoker are other nods to Walls’ Kansas City upbringing. The Canadian walleye is another favorite among meals that have been around since the start of business, the recipes unchanged. Nearly 27 years ago, the artichoke dip, called Yuppie-i-o, was proclaimed the best around the Front Range, “emphasizing both the old West and the new.” It’s still the same.

“Everything that we have on our menu is time-tested,” says Dillon Walls, the founder’s son running the place now. “If something didn’t sell over the years, it’s gone away. So everything on the menu has made a 27-year cut.”

The people haven’t changed much either. The woman baking the bread has been doing it close to two decades. A couple of bartenders have been around about the same time.

Laura Odom started serving here when her daughter was 2. Now her daughter is 24 and working alongside her at the restaurant.

“I just love it,” Odom says between tables of customers she’s known for a long time. “This is family.”

This is old Castle Rock, says the manager who has also been at the restaurant 20-plus years. He remembers the old-timers who held court at the bar, coming from farms that have since been swallowed by subdivisions and shopping centers. Finn says it can feel like their spirits are still here, like the ghost of the cowboy he says he sees around.

“I like being part of the space, being part of the stories,” Finn says.

Even 1995 feels like far-off history. When the Walls opened Castle Cafe that year, Finn says he could count on one hand the number of eateries around the square. “It was a real one-horse town,” Walls recalls.

His dad had a feeling that would change fast, that the populations on either side of Castle Rock would converge. He was right.

But generations from the old town still find home at Castle Cafe.

“To me, it’s cozy,” Odom says. “I think for a lot of people that’s what it is.”

On the menu

Castle Cafe’s chicken dinners (starting at $20) come with a breast, thigh, leg and wing and choice of soup, salad or slaw along with house-baked bread, veggies and mashed potatoes and gravy.

The Canadian walleye is popular, fried and almond-crusted and topped with a brown butter hollandaise. That also tops the campfire trout, with other fish plates being the pan seared salmon and fried catfish. Other home-style favorites ($17-$27): buffalo meatloaf and hot roast turkey.

The brisket gets a tangy BBQ sauce while the pulled pork is paired with a Carolina variety (both $16). Steak burgers ($15) are staples, as is the melty artichoke dip, “loaded with parmesan cheese broiled to perfection.”

Choice of caesar, cobb and grilled chicken salads ($10-$17) with house-made dressings. The chicken noodle soup is a classic since the restaurant’s start in the ’90s.

Homemade desserts ($9): white chocolate, black bottom banana cream pie; four-layer chocolate fudge cake; and apple pie.