Hospitality industry looks forward to sunny days

With apologies to Shakespeare: “And now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by an increase in tax revenues.”

Perhaps it is a bit premature to predict a return to sunny days for the hospitality industry, particularly when the effects of the bad economy have put a wintry chill on profit and growth. But in Northern Colorado, the hospitality industry of 2010 has been stirring under the snow, expanding a little, tweaking here, opening a new restaurant there.

As if to signal a transition from “space for lease” to “open for business,” Ingredient (5,500 square feet spilling onto sidewalk patio space in summer) on the corner of Mountain and College avenues in Fort Collins finally opened in December. Transforming any historic building into a restaurant comes with surprises that slow down the works (just ask Tian Lu of Lulu Asian Bistro or Missy and Steve Levenger of the Armstrong Hotel). But transforming a bank vault into a kitchen proved to be especially daunting.

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The 19th-century builders of the Poudre Valley Bank would be proud to know that their vault withstood all simple solutions and vexed Ingredient’s timetable. Steve Kerner, one of three partners who own Ingredient, is still shaking his head.

“This is our seventh restaurant,” Kerner said. “We started in Kansas and Nebraska and decided we would test the waters in a different market. We have a good price point and excellent food.”

And that price point is fixed – no tipping allowed. In lieu of gratuities, the Ingredient menu recommends performing “a random act of kindness,” such as plugging a quarter into an expired parking meter, giving to charity, or petting a dog.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner – plus dessert, for those who consider that a basic food group – the Ingredient concept is ambitious. The breakfast menu offers everything from lox and bagels to omelets and pancakes and everything in between. Lunch and dinner offer sandwiches, soups, pizzas with handmade crust cooked up in a brick oven, and salads made to order.

In Kerner’s view, one of the unique features of Ingredient is the dessert corner.

“You can come in just for dessert: fondue or gelato and a cup of coffee,” he said. “We have milk, dark and white chocolates as well as caramel and raspberry puree.”

Where there are raspberries, can sunny days be far behind?

Other signs of life

It may have been that 2009 marked a low point in the prospects for the hospitality sector. Then chefs and other entrepreneurs, the most optimistic lot on the planet, adjusted and moved forward, committed to filling empty spaces and eager appetites.

Schmidt’s Bakery in Loveland, after a rough encounter with the taxman, is back on track and serving up holiday stollen. In Fort Collins, El Monte Bar and Grille adjusted to the realities of its location tucked away at South College Avenue and Prospect Road, and now appears to be flourishing. Spoons opened a new location on Harmony Road, and Grey’s Café at Times Square slid into the kitchen space previously filled by Wildrock Café, nee Hooters. Snooze for breakfast came to Mountain Avenue, and Nordy’s joined the Plan B (burgers, BBQ and breakfast) movement on North College Avenue.

In LaPorte, the Empire Express has opened in the unremarkable building next to the Shell gas station, bringing Chinese takeout to the land of the Vern’s gigantic cinnamon roll.

Spaces that became empty filled up quickly. The Funky Monkey Crepe Café on College Avenue became a clothing store, but King Weenie parked its buns down the block next to Tony’s Restaurant and Lounge after fleeing its previous Drake Road location. Across the street, without missing a beat, the Stone House Grille became the Beach House Grill. The exception to this trend remains the nice space on Harmony Road in search of a concept and strong management most recently occupied by the Harmony Grill.

Other empty retail spaces were “repurposed,” at least temporarily, as winter farmers’ markets. In Loveland, Mary and Jeff Hiatt opened their historic – and vacant – Bonnell Building on Fourth Street as a satellite site of Fort Collins’ Be Local Winter Market. In the Foothills Mall, the empty B. Dalton space has become a temporary Sunday home to the Fort Collins Farmers’ Market.

Perhaps the entire mall would make an excellent European-style food court.

And the original Be Local Winter Market, now a weekend feature in the Opera Galleria, has opened a second venue across the street in the Northern Hotel. Good ideas seem to spread.

Speaking of spreading ideas, the age of the bakery is dawning in Fort Collins, even though Olive Street Bakery became Mike Howland’s newest Gib’s Bagels. In Old Town, there will be three new ones: Butter Cream Cupcakery and Little Bird Bakery have come to roost in Old Town Square, and Claude Lucas La Crêperie on Mountain Avenue finally has enough fire power to open his Croissants de France Bakery around the corner.

In the venue category, Linde Thompson continues to grow The Kress Cinema & Lounge, the jewel in the crown of downtown Greeley. “We are no longer using the kitchen next door,” she said. “We decided to build one of our own.”

By the first part of 2011, the Kress will have a new menu and new ways to mix the pleasures of dark Swedish cinema with Colorado cuisine.

As for the historic Armory event space in Fort Collins, which seemed to open and then suddenly close as a potential buyer began to perform “due diligence,” the deal now seemed to be sealed. Really sealed.

“The Armory is sold, at least as certainly as anything can be in these times,´ said Amy Satterfield who owns the building with her husband Paul Jensen. “We will close the first week in January, but my store Wadoo will remain open in this location while we look for a new space for our businesses.”

And the new owner is … ? Stay tuned.

A cherry on top

Open Table, which now has an iPhone app for diners hoping to snag a table at a nice restaurant officially booked solid, has announced that Jason Shaeffer’s Chimney Park Restaurant & Bar in Windsor has been voted in the top 10 “Best Overall Restaurants” and “Best Food” for the entire state of Colorado – that includes Denver – through its Diners’ Choice Ratings. Bravo for Shaeffer, who makes clear that the best way to promote local food sustainability is to make a spectacular meal of it and put it on the table. He makes Northern Colorado look like a good place to eat.

So here’s to 2011 and the glorious summer to come.