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FORT COLLINS--One of the dumbest marketing phrases ever created goes something like this: "Acme Restaurant is Anytown's best kept dining secret."
Yeah, right--like there is some well-orchestrated covert conspiracy involving a restaurant's management and a group of citizens to keep the number of diners down. If you find a place with good food, you generally tell anyone who will listen.
So, let me tell you about two places that have surprisingly great grub. The Crown Pub and Mulligan's Food and Ale (both in Fort Collins) have come to the same conclusion: Better food improves bar business.
It makes sense, too. Pointing the menu slightly more toward the high end brings in people who normally wouldn't go to a bar for a meal. You still get the tavern crowd, but the more-affluent folks come in, too.
The Crown Pub opened in a seemingly doomed location (134 S. College Ave.) in January 1995. It was started by Keith Galeener and his "silent partner" brother after Keith moved here to be with his mom and dad. His father, a Colorado State University professor, had a sabbatical in Cambridge, England, when Keith was 17.
While in England, the family learned to love the neighborhood-pub idea. Keith said the neighborhood bar is a dying breed in the States, where too often they car the reputation of being smoky, dark refuges...