About RARE Italian
RARE is an Italian steakhouse located in the heart of Old Town in Fort Collins, Colorado. Inspired by travel experiences in central Italy, RARE offers a rustic, farm to table approach to dishes often found in Umbria and Tuscany. RARE’s menus feature fresh, homemade pasta and cheeses, the best, in-house dry-aged steaks in Northern Colorado, and an extensive list of New and Old World wines. We are proud to offer local ingredients, are committed to seasonality and serve only the best cuts of beef that we dry-age in-house for a minimum of 21 days. The RARE experience is intentionally warm and welcoming, and our focus is simple, elegant dishes made the right way. We invite you to join us for a meal and let our exceptional staff take care of you as though you were family. Prego!
GIFT CARDS
We offer physical Gift Cards for purchase!
After 4pm, please call 970.294.4544 or come in for Gift Card purchases. If purchased by phone, we are happy to hold a Gift Card in our safe for your loved one to pick up upon their visit to RARE Italian.
Our Team
Nate Booth, Executive Chef
Nate’s mother was a baker, so he began his career early – first by sweeping up flour, and later by working his way through various kitchens during high school and college. He then went on to apprentice at Wolfgang Puck through the American Culinary Federation. Upon completion in 2003, he moved to Texas where he was an Executive Chef for Truluck’s Seafood – opening new locations for the award-winning restaurant group in Texas and California. From 2009-2014 he was the Chef Partner for Artins in Plano, TX, then Executive Chef at OAK in Dallas, TX from 2015-2017, a James Beard winning restaurant. From 2017-2021 Nate worked with the restaurant group, Whiskeycake, in the role of back of house lead trainer and opening Chef for all new locations, in addition to running one location and creating seasonal menus for the group. In March of 2021, Nate chose to move back to his home state of Colorado where he joined the RARE team as Executive Chef.
Collin McDowell, General Manager
Collin has been the GM at RARE since September 2020. He has been in hospitality since age 13 when he got his first job washing dishes at the Raintree Plaza Hotel & Convention Center. By 17, Collin was a Sous Chef and managing the culinary operations in three restaurants on the Raintree campus. Collin became the youngest Executive Chef in that company’s history and spent the next 25 years running steakhouses, nightclubs and specialty concepts for CraftWorks Holdings (formerly Rock Bottom Restaurants & Breweries). Collin was a three time General Manager of The Year at The Denver ChopHouse & Brewery and was distinguished four times for outstanding leadership, integrity, values based leadership and community partnership. As Director of Operations for CraftWorks, Collin oversaw seven different brands across the country while Chairing the CraftWorks Foundation’s Board of Directors. Between then and now, Collin was Vice President for a restaurant consultation group – Restaurant Sherpas – where he coached, developed and supported the wild world of new restaurant ownership. The pandemic allowed Collin to reconsider a simpler path in his hometown at his family’s favorite restaurant – RARE Italian.
