Trained chefs bring spice of life to region

A funny thing happened in Fort Collins at the turn of the 21st century. The population trigger – 100,000 – that caused corporate fast-food chains to storm the market also acted as a magnet for their antithesis: independent chefs trained at top culinary schools with some serious experience.

In 2002, Tom Stoner and his partner Martin Dickey were looking for a place to try out a concept: a restaurant that served only soups and salads. What few people knew was that Chef Tom had trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and had been executive chef at the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island in Hawaii.

Even though the modest concept they had cooked up – eight soups, prepared fresh every day – was not fine dining, it could still reflect top-flight training. Spoons, Soups and Salads in Old Town was a hit.

Spoons was also becoming part of a growing organic/locavore movement when Florian Wehrli arrived in Windsor. Swiss-born Wehrli did his culinary apprenticeship with renowned Chef Georges Wenger, winning the Best Apprentice of Switzerland in 1997. By 2000 he had already been noticed in New York City and become the hot new chef in Las Vegas. He was 25.

Then he and his wife had their first child.

“We didn’t want to raise a family in Las Vegas,” he said. “When the opportunity came up for me to have my own restaurant in Windsor, I took it.”

Unlike Stoner, Wehrli forged ahead with full-service fine dining. With the help of three partners, he opened Chimney Park Bistro in 2004.

Keep it fresh, local

Although their concepts seemed wildly different, Stoner and Wehrli shared a sensibility that was to gather momentum: keep it fresh and local.

Actively nurturing connections between local growers and restaurants is key to creating great food. Northern Colorado’s cornucopia made constructing a distinctive cuisine from local cheeses, bison, lamb, chickens, mushrooms and vegetables galore entirely possible.

“There is nothing better than the tomato you pick this morning,” Wehrli said. “From the very beginning I called on local farmers and explained what I needed for my menu.”

While Stoner and Wehrli were starting their restaurants from scratch, down the road in Hudson, Amy Martin Regalado was taking over the kitchen in her family’s restaurant – after graduating with distinction from the Culinary Institute of America in 2005.

“I literally grew up in the Pepper Pod,” she said. “My crib was in the office. No one thought I would come back.”

Still, she did. Why would she want to work for somebody else when she could make her dreams of owning a restaurant immediately come true?

Restaurant business

Having the chance to be an owner is the dream of many a chef. But as Stoner pointed out, managing the business side of a restaurant is not the same as managing its kitchen. Chefs Chris Dill and Patrick Laguens can both cook up a storm, but could not make their full-service concepts work in the Old Town space outgrown by the thriving Fiona’s Delicatessen and Catering in 2006. Dill’s downhome Southern cooking at Suzette’s – which closed in 2007 – and Laguens’ stylish urban fare at Plank – RIP 2009 – both ran into a problem identified by Chef Ted Schneider, owner of the current inhabitant of the space, Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que.

“Unless you own your own place, you can’t do fine dining,” he said. “The rent will kill you. I wanted to own my own restaurant, but when the time came for me to invest my own money, barbecue seemed like a good fit with Fort Collins.”

Owning his own building is exactly what Jason Shaeffer set out to do. When he learned in 2007 that Wehrli’s partners were selling Chimney Park and Wehrli was not buying, he quickly gave up celebrity chef status at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. He bought the place lock, stock and name (later adjusting it to Chimney Park Restaurant and Bar). He could never have afforded such a property in sunny California.

Shaeffer’s menu also features seasonal items produced within the region, and has helped Chimney Park survive the literal blow of the 2008 tornado and the more insidious economic blow of 2009 by attracting loyal fans.

“We have our own regulars now,” he said.

Cautiously optimistic

At this moment in 2010, it is possible to feel cautiously optimistic that the local restaurant scene will not collapse under the weight of corporate sameness. Local restaurateurs are as important as local farmers to regional dining. Jacki and Jay Witlin have been serving up good meals and music in Fort Collins for 30 years now, while local chef/entrepreneur Matt Schump has made his nearby Canyon Chop House a favorite in just five years.

The chefs left standing in the last decade have made Northern Colorado a better place to eat. Even those who came and left have helped nudge dining in a better direction. The irrepressible Chef Florian – also walloped by the tornado of 2008, then hired by the Embassy Suites in Loveland – is now executive chef in Peoria, Ill., at the top Embassy Suites in the JQ Hammons collection.

So here’s to the 21st-century chefs of Northern Colorado. May their knives always be sharp, their produce fresh and fine, their customers prosperous and their wait staff as excellent as the meals they serve.

Jane Albritton, who has written for the Business Report since 1997, has covered the region’s hospitality and tourism industries since 2004.

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