BRECKENRIDGE • It seems everybody around here knows the Gold Pan.

“For better or worse,” says Aaron Corich-Kleim.

He’s among the ski bums-turned-bartenders-turned-part-owners of Summit County’s oldest bar, dating back more than 160 years. Another is Chris Butler. He similarly observed the Wild West prevailing at the Gold Pan a decade ago.

“We’d walk past the Gold Pan on a Friday night or Saturday night, and it would just be a like a rager in there,” Butler says. “It was crazy as hell in there. Just dancing and lights flashing. I remember being like, No way.”

Yes way; he’d later tend bar. His first night was memorable — for worse.

“This guy was fighting,” Butler says, “and the bouncer walked him through the saloon doors and tossed him to the street.”

It’s a different scene through the saloon doors today.

And that’s for the better, says yet another longtime bartender-turned- owner and still-proud ski bum, Ben Dunbar.

“The locals back in 2017, when we were first putting the winery in, (they were) very angry,” Dunbar says. “Fast-forward to 2024, those same locals that were angry are here asking for rosé.”

Among many lives since the 1860s, the Gold Pan is enjoying its latest life under Carboy Winery. The “urban winery” concept continues to expand since planting its flag at a long-beloved Italian restaurant in downtown Denver, Angelo’s.

But yes, back in 2017, some around Breckenridge needed convincing on the new arrangement.

Sure, it could be rough and rowdy in the Gold Pan. But the beer was cheap, and the wooden bar and stools and swinging doors and everything else was much the same as it was since the town’s beginnings, while much else up and down Main Street went the way of glitzy après. The Gold Pan was a tradition. Could it continue under Carboy Winery?

The Summit Daily quoted the company’s majority owner, Craig Jones, at a town council meeting: “I do know how important it is to preserve history, and I have a track record of that with Angelo’s in Cap Hill.”

Though, it was true: There would be changes.

First, the food.

Out with whatever the stoners in the tiny kitchen whipped up over the years, in with the vision of Scott Hybbeneth, the career chef behind Carboy’s other menus around Denver.

Here at the Gold Pan, the Colorado beef burgers are a go-to, one of them topped with pulled goat that comes straight from a farm in Salida. Another go-to: the ribs, braised overnight and arriving with a crispy, sticky, balsamic coat.

Others might go for the salmon BLT or the lamb French dip, while on the winery side one chooses from a fresh, colorful array of “snacks:” tuna sashimi, and shrimp gnocchi, to name a couple.

The winery side — that would be the biggest change to the Gold Pan.

The side building where early residents bowled and more recent residents played pool and fought would be transformed into a bright and airy space, a resort-style space. A space in which to be seen, one might say.

The saloon, meanwhile, would be mostly left to its gritty, rustic environs — the dual lives of Summit County blending right here, one might say, the past and present converging.

“Kind of like a mullet,” Dunbar says. “Business on one side, party on the other.”

He’d be part of another change when the winery moved in: Committed workers would be welcomed into company ownership.

“It makes you wanna work that much harder, because you’re part of something,” Corich-Kleim says.

Something old — a tradition to carry on.

“Everything’s developing around Summit County, and everything’s developing around Breckenridge,” Dunbar says. “The one thing that’s unlikely to ever change is those two double swinging doors.”

The doors look old, but they are not original. The bar is original — said to be freighted with sister mahogany found at Leadville’s Silver Dollar Saloon and Crested Butte’s Kochevar’s Saloon — along with the foot rest said to be a converted rail from an old mining tunnel.

It’s easy to imagine the taxidermy being the decor of yesteryear, but the deer and elk heads are actually modern products. They were shot by a local old-timer proficient with the bow as he is at skiing bumps. (He barbacks on weekends.)

The safe resembles one said to be behind the bar in the mining days. It keeps a picture of Tom’s Baby, Colorado’s biggest hunk of gold found around Breckenridge in 1887.

By then, the wood and iron structure that is now the Gold Pan had been built. It was built in the place of a tent that was the initial watering hole going back to the 1860s, called Long’s Saloon.

Stories tell of a brothel upstairs, of an underground tunnel connecting the saloon to the courthouse. The basement was a priority for Carboy Winery; the building was jacked up to provide space for inventory and a fermenting tank, as part of the owner’s idea for “a mountainous micro winery at 9,600 feet.”

Lately, the tank has stored cider as part of a new, upstart venture. “We’re constantly evolving,” Dunbar says.

Evolving while keeping some things the same.

Efforts have been made to stop the fighting. But on a Friday or Saturday night, you might see a dance party that looks like a rager — today’s ski bums in the place of rabble-rousing miners.

Corich-Kleim shows a recent certificate recognizing the Gold Pan for Breckenridge’s “best nightlife.” He smiles at that.

“We’re still having a good time,” he says.

On the menu

You’ll find two menus and two different atmospheres at Gold Pan Saloon: the saloon side and the Carboy Winery side.

On the Gold Pan side, the burgers are most popular ($15-$18, served with fries or small salad). The Gold Pan Burger pairs tender belly bacon with blue cheese and grilled onions. Another specialty is the Cabra Burger, topped with pulled goat from a Salida farm. Other handhelds: a caprese sandwich, a BLT adding salmon, and a French dip favoring thinly shaved lamb.

The balsamic glazed ribs ($15) are highly recommended. As is the grilled beef short rib, served with chimichurri and potatoes ($28). The two other entrees: grilled ribeye and wasabi crusted salmon.

Those entrees are also found on the winery side. Both sides of the building also share the ribs, burrata ($12) and garlic and herb fries ($7) as popular shareables.

Tuna sashimi, shrimp gnocchi and the ahi tuna tostada are go-to “snacks” ($10-$15) served at the winery. Dozens of reds and whites are poured from bottles and taps, paired with several charcuterie and bruschetta boards.