The Red Canyon Café was created on a whim, sort of. But hard work and dedication to community and family turned it into an Eagle institution.
Ryan Murray, who founded the café, died recently at the too-young age of 48. He’s survived by his wife Sarah and their three teenage sons — Alec, 18, Owen, 17, and Isaac, 15. A memorial is planned later this spring.
In a recent telephone conversation, Sarah talked about the couple’s years together as business and life partners.
The two met in 1999 while working at Quattro’s, an Edwards coffee shop. Ryan, was working there in the off-season after working a ski season at Beaver Creek’s Splendido restaurant — “when there was an off-season in the valley,” Sarah recalled.
The two decided to spend some time together outside of work, and were married in 2003. They soon moved to a home on Eagle Street in Gypsum, a town they’d never been to before moving there.
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The couple had talked about buying a restaurant, and one Sunday were driving down Broadway in Eagle. Ryan thought a little place in the 100 block looked interesting, and left a note on the door, asking if the owner might be interested in selling. The owner called soon after, and dominoes began to fall, with the Red Canyon Café opening in 2005.
“It just all happened by the grace of God,” Sarah said. But, she added, “That’s so classic my husband,” Sarah said. “We didn’t know what we were doing.”
So the Murrays developed a menu, leaning on their own creativity and suggestions from friends and customers. Menu items got names both basic and fanciful, from the Ham & Swiss to the Italian Stallion and Super Mario Melt.
Developing a following
The fledgling business soon started to develop a following, for both the food and the attention to local artists and youth.
Sarah and Ryan worked together at the restaurant the first couple of years before Sarah took a teaching job — one she still holds, working with gifted and talented students. “Someone needed a salary and insurance,” she said.
The restaurant business is always a hard dollar. It’s particularly hard when economic times are tough.
The Great Recession that really took hold in the valley in 2009 was a particularly tough time, Sarah recalled. “We were just willing to hold on longer, with less, than anybody else,” Sarah said. It also helped that Red Canyon is a breakfast and lunch place, she noted. Dinner is a luxury. Breakfast and lunch catch people when they’re working.
But even with all the work, the family grew, and Ryan spent what time he could helping raise the couple’s sons, working to restore International Scout trucks and other hobbies.
“Ryan was a force of nature,” Sarah recalled. “He was so tenacious, he was going to make it work, and that’s what it takes.”
But Ryan had been sick for a few years with cancer. In January 2023, the doctors at the Shaw Cancer Center told him there was little more they could do. Even his tenacious spirit couldn’t overcome the disease that eventually took his life.
A community steward
The Murrays in August of last year sold the business to longtime employee and friend Kent Kingrey, who’s working to maintain the spirit of the place.
Kingrey started coming to the Red Canyon as a customer, when he was working just up the street at Yeti’s Grind coffee shop. He eventually started working at Red Canyon, where he and Ryan worked together for several years.
The café remained open all through the COVID-19 pandemic, and for much of that time, it was just Ryan and Kingrey up front and two people in the kitchen. Those quiet times were filled with board games and talk about family.
Ryan was always looking for ways to keep his boys busy, Kingrey recalled.
The Murray boys refinished all the restaurant’s tables.
Ryan also looked out for his employees and friends.
“He was always a steward of the community,” Kingrey recalled.
If an employee’s car broke down, Ryan would often give that person a lift. He’d also help out if an employee needed tires to keep a car on the road. When Ryan and Kingrey were working on a deal for the sale of the café, Ryan eventually agreed to help finance the deal.
“He always had a desire to help people do better,” Kingrey said.
The past few weeks have been tough ones for Ryan’s friends and family. Sarah said her time with her husband was far too short. But, she added, “We got to do a lot of amazing things in the time we had. We had a lot of amazing adventures … we had a lot of fun together.”
