Welcome to Blackhorse Mercantile & Cafe

The name “Blackhorse” was inspired by a dear friend of owners, David and Lisa Stowe, whose grandfather owned and operated a mercantile during the “boomtown” days of Breckenridge.

As opposed to today’s advanced, digital inventory management systems that keep track of costs and profits, business owners “back in the day” used to have to get creative in the way they remembered cost of goods sold in order to know what to change for their items.

“Blackhorse” was a code that reminded the owner how much an item costs so he knew what to sell it for to make a profit. 10 letters for 10 fingers. B was 1, L was 2, A was 3, and so on. Each letter was representative of the respective number of the finger, so at item marked “BE” means it cost the owner $0.10, whereas an item marked “HA” was $0.63. 

Of course, no one knew the code aside from the owner, so his profit margin was protected. Prices were more negotiable back then as bargaining was more common, of course, hardly anything costed more than a handful a cents.

Paying homage to the 1920’s era of our historical building, Blackhorse Mercantile & Cafe was inspired by these true events and the spirit of bringing back “Boomtown Breckenridge.”