After more than 25 years running a restaurant aboard a moving train, Mark and Dawn Greksa have opened one that stays put. The owners of Royal Gorge Route Railroad have turned Cañon City's historic Robison Mansion, built in 1884, into Antithesis Dining, a fine-dining restaurant occupying the mansion's ground floor, with chef Johnny Church, a Food Network “Chopped” champion, running the kitchen.
The Greksas bought the mansion in 2018 after it became available, according to the Denver Post, special contributor Sarah Kuta reports, but COVID-19 forced them to pause those plans while they focused on keeping their railroad business afloat. It wasn't until a post-pandemic travel boom brought enough train business back that the couple felt ready to invest in the property. Dawn Greksa led the renovation herself, preserving as many of the mansion's original features as possible while adding a commercial kitchen to make the space functional for a restaurant.
Those original features are considerable. The mansion's entry rises 44 feet, its staircase is hand-built mahogany assembled without a single nail, and the dining room is lit by a crystal chandelier imported from Austria. The walls and ceilings carry intricate rose-and-leaf motif molding, details that The Gazette notes date the staircase, moldings and chandeliers to the 1800s. Dawn Greksa described the restoration as a “labor of love to recreate that space” and said she wanted to offer it as a place to celebrate and gather, per the Denver Post's reporting.
A Mining Baron's Legacy, Reinterpreted
The mansion was originally built by Lyman Robison, who made his fortune in gold and silver mining and constructed the three-story home on a four-acre plot across from the Arkansas River. Robison and his wife, Mary, hosted lavish parties and distinguished guests there in its heyday. The Robison Mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dawn Greksa said she sees the restaurant as a continuation of that legacy rather than a departure from it. “We’re recreating that vision that the Robisons originally had when they built this house,” she said, according to the Denver Post. “We’re just keeping it going.” The name Antithesis, the Greksas explain, means the opposite of ordinary, a nod to pairing old-world formality with contemporary Colorado-Western cooking — language echoed in The Gazette's description of the restaurant combining “the formality of the historic mansion with a modern Colorado-Western culinary experience.”
From the Rails to a Chopped Champion's Kitchen
Running a restaurant that doesn't move presented its own learning curve. Mark Greksa has spent decades making sure nothing gets left behind on a train car, noting that supplies and ingredients simply cannot be missed or forgotten mid-route. Dawn Greksa put it more specifically: pickles, she said, must not be forgotten at the depot.
To lead the new kitchen, the Greksas hired Johnny Church as Antithesis's founding executive chef and director of food and beverage. Church, 49, brings more than three decades of experience from top restaurants in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and he won Food Network's “Chopped” and was previously named Nevada Restaurant Association Culinarian of the Year, per the Gazette's reporting. He relocated to Colorado in June after a stretch focused on high-end catering and consulting, and in his off hours he's an avid hiker, mountain biker and skier.
Antithesis opened to diners in August, and the menu reflects Church's background: dishes include a surf-and-turf carpaccio with octopus, wagyu beef, aioli and black garlic vinaigrette; bacon-wrapped pork belly topped with a sunny-side-up quail egg; and a beet-cured hamachi crudo finished with pickled lemon-thyme-ginger carrots, five-spice crema, rice cracker and dry ice. The Canon City Daily Record also notes the kitchen keeps sandwiches, burgers, fish and tacos on the menu alongside wild boar, New York strip and Wellington cuts of steak. Church has said Antithesis could become a true destination restaurant if the team maintains quality, and he's reworking the railroad's onboard menus as well as hoping to build a garden on the mansion grounds and launch a culinary externship program bringing aspiring chefs to Cañon City.
Local Farms and a Growing Brunch Menu
Nearby farms give Antithesis access to fresh, locally grown ingredients the kitchen uses to reinterpret familiar dishes with seasonal, modern elements. The restaurant's own menu page lists working partners including Colon Orchards Produce, Morro Bay Oysters, Creekstone Farms Beef and Freedom Run Farm Lamb.
Dinner and bar service run Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to Antithesis's website. By September, the restaurant had also added weekend daytime brunch and lunch, a detail the Gazette's Table Talk column flagged as new seasonal programming. Listed brunch closing times differ by source — Antithesis's own website lists Saturday and Sunday brunch and bar service from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., while a Cañon City community listing gives the hours as 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — so diners may want to confirm before visiting. Antithesis is located at 12 Riverside Ave. in Cañon City and can be reached at 719-778-3231.
More Than a Restaurant
The mansion isn't just a dining room. Its second level holds a private four-bedroom guest suite available only as a full-floor rental, and the grounds include tree-shaded landscaping, an ornate cast-iron fountain and outdoor firepits. The Greksas also plan to refurbish the property's on-site carriage house and turn it into a wedding and events venue, rounding out a property that already combines a restaurant, overnight lodging and a future events space.
Mark and Dawn Greksa have owned Royal Gorge Route Railroad since purchasing the tracks from Union Pacific in 1998, and the railroad offers scenic rides through a 12-mile stretch of canyon track. Mark Greksa said the train and the Royal Gorge Bridge already put Cañon City — a town of roughly 17,000 residents — on the map, and he hopes Antithesis adds a foodie destination to that draw, with the couple aiming to attract diners from across Colorado and beyond. Early visitor reaction has been mixed with enthusiasm: one Tripadvisor reviewer who dined there in October wrote that both their dinner and brunch at Antithesis were highlights of their stay in Cañon City.
