15 JULY 17-23, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | the Bucksnort, but the Bucksnort owned me. And I cared about my customers, and I worried about them, but there was nothing I could do.” It is, perhaps, the proper instinct of a pediatric physician to ask a parent what he needs to know about a child patient – and that’s what Kazura did after he pocketed the keys to the Bucksnort. It was a polite, productive conversation, but it was still clearly early days for Kazura, and that was that. Then, a few months ago, a sentimental Bye engaged with some of the Bucksnort’s old content on Facebook, triggering a noti- fi cation on Kazura’s screen. “I called her the next day,” Kazura re- members. “And we sat, and we had breakfast, and I said, ‘Look, I have my medicine career, I’ve got a family. I love this place, but I can’t run it every day. How do I be a ‘landlord’ and keep the heritage of the Bucksnort?’” Bye smirked, Kazura says. “She said, ‘It’s the Bucksnort. It’s the only thing that it could be.’ And I said, “You’re coming back, aren’t you?” The next day, she e-mailed Kazura the menu. A few months later, she’s greeting customers and reassuring greenhorn servers and running food — and grinning, unbur- dened by the relentless, quotidian hassles of ownership and buoyed by being back, as she phrases it, “in the people business.” It’s an opportunity to experience a place that meant so much to her for 21 years for the fi rst time, again, now through Kazura’s eyes, since he never stumbled through the bar while it was open. “He will be surprised when he really sees it in full swing, when it is impossibly packed in here and the place is about to break apart as live music is playing,” she says. “It’s almost mystical. It is a mystical experience at the Bucksnort.” You’d be forgiven if you found the whole story a little too just-so, in a woo-woo way. An outsider pediatric physician swoops in to try to revive a place. Along the way, his bedside manner wins over folks who, despite every reason not to trust him, become the very rea- son he’s able to succeed at saving something that otherwise would be gone forever. His mentor is kindly, sage, and believes in magic. And get this: It all comes together under a full moon? Get real. For JoAnn Kazura, on hand to root on her son, Pete, during the Bucksnort’s fi rst service under his ownership, it’s hardly surprising. “One of the things he said when he wanted to be a doctor was that he wanted to try for something that he didn’t think he could reach,” she says. “In other words, he set himself a goal that was almost unreach- able, and he reached it. The Bucksnort is another one of those goals of, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to reach it, but I’m going to make it happen.’” It’s certainly improbable that we’ve got- ten to this point, where the Bucksnort is the Bucksnort again, for at least one night, instead of mothballed, bulldozed, or moldering. If Bye, Kazura and the people of Sphinx Park are able to keep it open by way of cunning tenacity and the great Colo- rado community rooting them on, it’s your classic heroic epic. If the stars continue to align above plastic cups of beer, full moons and decades-old taxidermy, there’s an air of magical realism here. If it fails, burns down or slides into the nearby creek, it’s a tragedy. Either way, it’s something you’ll talk about over drinks. And that’s just the thing: A good bar makes you feel like you’re the main charac- ter. A great one helps you realize that you’re just passing through part of its story. The Bucksnort Saloon clearly has more to tell. The Bucksnort Saloon is now open Thursdays through Sundays at 15921 South Elk Creek Road in Pine, with live music on Saturdays. Check for updates at facebook.com/Bucksnort- SaloonPineColorado. The parking lot of the Bucksnort Saloon will be fi lled again. SKYLER MCKINLEY MONDAY. ... .. .. .. ..5, 202. REGISTER TODAY cmhof.org Wellshire Golf Course 3333 S Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO — 2nd Annual — Golf Tournament
