Creativity puts Aspen neighbor on the map
Artisanal food, adventure abound in Carbondale, Colorado’s newest exciting summer destination
Barely 30 miles northwest of Aspen, in the shadow of the majestic Elk Mountains, tiny Carbondale is becoming Colorado’s most exciting summer destination. True, the town has more family-owned cattle ranches than Michelin stars, and there are still more farm stands than white tablecloth spots. The restaurant best poised to elevate the town’s status doesn’t even have a proper dining room.
Instead, at the Guest House, chef Seth O’Donovan serves her experimental farm dinners outdoors, usually next to a horse paddock or in a roomy treehouse that surveys 1,200 acres of pristine Colorado pastures. Meals include savory links of deer sausage served with soft, house-made cheese and a mind-bending dessert of carrots with butter and cinnamon, cooked to the point where they almost resemble pie filling.
Those who come for her experimental, starlit dinners can roll into an assortment of rustic cabins on the property, many of which date to the 1940s. In two years, O’Donovan aims to turn the main house on her property into a five-star, eight-room hotel.
A small ranching town with a population of 6,000, Carbondale has been for many years Aspen’s folksy, less-sophisticated little sister. But as Aspen’s image has shifted from glamorous to oversaturated and even out of touch, insiders have been turning to Carbondale as a refreshingly intimate alternative. What it lacks in ski access and five-star resorts, it makes up with raging creative energy and access to a bevy of artisanal food suppliers.
Given their proximity, though, Aspen and Carbondale have much in common. Like Aspenites, Carbondale residents claim easy access to highaltitude hiking and whitewater rafting, as well as a world-class art museum.
If Aspen is a wintertime playground, Carbondale is its summer foil. On the Roaring Fork River, which flows through Aspen and Carbondale along Highway 82, there’s excellent trout fishing, whitewater rafting and stand-up paddling. It’s also scenic: The surrounding wetlands are a protected nature preserve; on your way down river, you’ll pass herds of elk and colonies of great blue heron.
Frank Scotti, the 41-year-old founder of Nomad Inc., is the town’s de facto adventure concierge. For years, he’s made a name on heli-skiing trips to Chile or surfing itineraries in Costa Rica, but now he’s finding just as much success at home in the Carbondale valley.
“Helicopter flight-seeing tours are huge for us,” Scotti says. “We have waterfalls, wildlife and the Marroon Bells, which I’ve been told are the most photographed peaks in Colorado.”
In keeping with the destination’s culinary-meetsadventure appeal, Scotti will also plan “white glove picnics” at such places as Cedar Ridge Ranch, Rock Bottom Ranch and O’Donovan’s Guest House. They’re elaborate setups created in partnership with local chefs, using ingredients such as native wild greens, homemade pickles and freshly laid eggs — a perfect way to unwind after a morning full of thrills.
Carbondale welcomed its first boutique hotel a couple of years ago: Marble Distilling Co.’s Distillery Inn has five rooms housed in a vodka distillery, with a massive copper tank visible through the bar window. The service is no-frills, but the rooms are surprisingly plush, with remote-controlled fireplaces and minibars with martini shakers.
Another worthwhile addition is Avalanche Ranch, a dreamy farm on the edge of town, where guests can browse antiques in a barn or practice yoga with a view of Mount Sopris. Its 13 log cabins and three novelty covered wagons have an unplugged feel — just what you want after soaking in the property’s idyllic thermal pools.
O’Donovan’s Guest House is already a destination unto itself. Before mealtime, patrons can take a lesson in yogurt-making, milk the farm’s water buffaloes, check on the property beehives or wander into the on-site blacksmith shops, where the hotel’s bed frames will be designed.
At the moment, O’Donovan is harvesting 92 percent of her own ingredients, including tomatoes she ferments into vinegar and an ancient grain called kernza that’s the basis of extra-springy cavatelli, served with nettle pesto. Eventually, she’ll get to 100 percent, even if this means producing her own sugars, fats and beverages.
This style of “closed-loop hospitality,” where everything is made directly in-house, marks a first for unpretentious Carbondale. It’s also emblematic of the creativity that’s putting this little town on the map.