By Brooke Ely Danielson

What does it mean to be an insider, exactly? Well, in Aspen it means you’re a local; or a pseudo local at the very least. Perhaps you live here full time, grew up in the valley or own a  second home here––there are surely more than enough experts and opinion driven itineraries to keep your Aspen schedule packed.

Aspen is magical and culturally dense; there is something for everyone. People come from all parts of the world and you never know who you are going to meet.

Morning Coffee and Tea

Bear Den:

A trendy coffee shop featuring a heart menu and fresh baked pastries, you have to try the cinnamon rolls. Order a latte and cinnamon roll, and enjoy outside in the sun at one of their many outdoor tables. Not feeling the caffeine jolt? Make this your afternoon cocktail spot. They have a full bar and delicious snacks. 

Gorsuch Cafe:

From flat whites to delicious Mexican Hot Chocolate, it’s steps from the Gondola and ideal for people watching. You can always catch the old Stein (Erickson) crew getting coffee in the mornings.

Local Coffee house:

A “local” favorite. Be sure to order a latte and some of their healthy breakfast options, like avocado toast or fresh bread.

Lunch

Meat and Cheese:

Grab a salad or tacos from Meat and Cheese. Insider tip, if you have the day off grab a cocktail to go. The margaritas are divine. 

Dinner

Betula is a favorite. The music is great, the food excellent and the cocktails fun, fresh and full-bodied.
Want to sip craft cocktails and eat next-level food? Check out 7908, designed by me, for a night out. 

Activities

Hike Smuggler:

A steady incline for just a few miles. The view at the outlook is worth the booty burn. Careful in the late winter / early spring months as the road can be muddy or still packed with snow. 

Ski Aspen:

Aspen Mountain, also known as Ajax, has steeper, more fun terrain. Pop by Bonnies for a cocktail and strudel while hanging on the deck in the sun on a Spring Day. You can easily Après from there at Dante or Ajax tavern. 

Bike:

Ride or Walk to Woody Creek is a summer activity favorite. It’s just shy of 8 miles and not too rigorous. Ease your peddling and rent an e-bike from any of the local bike shops. 

Art Hop

The Aspen Art Museum:

The Aspen Art Museum is a must-visit. With rotating shows from world-renowned artists, this small but mighty museum is the perfect stopoff to fuel your creative palette. Pop upstairs to the cafe for their “famous” matcha latte. 

Skye Gallery:

Featuring emerging, and established artists, the Skye Gallery is a contemporary art lover’s dream. 

Pitkin Projects:

The lifestyle store Aspen has long needed. This pop-up shop offers up art, linens, candles, jewelry and sculpture from around the world. It’s a love letter to artisans near and far, as well as a decorators dream. Well curated and smartly executed, this shop should be at the top of your Aspen shopping list.

2018 has seen quite a litany of new eateries popping up around town. Left to right above: Clark’s, Plato’s and 7908. But have you been to them all?

7908: Of course, if you didn’t make it into 7908 over the summer, make sure it’s on your list this winter for a late-night dinner or drinks. The caviar nachos are already legendary and the decor is beyond reproach. Website

Plato’s: The reception center at the Aspen Meadows just got a fresh re-do and a new menu by chef Jason Thompson. The decor is still, a bit, cold, but the views are fantastic and the food is really tasty and strikes a nice balance of familiar, but inventive.  Website

Clark’s: Opened last June in the old Annie’s location, Clark’s has become an instant classic. (Sorry Annie’s. We still miss you!) The Nantucket theme should be totally out of place, but it works. Plus the food is great. Don’t believe us? Ask Kevin Costner. We’ve seen him there twice! Website

Public House: There was much fuss over who would become the new tenant at the former Justice Snow’s inside the Wheeler Opera House building. Public House slid in without much fanfare, but for anyone looking for a tasty, easy meal this is a great addition to the Aspen dining scene. Website

Henrietta’s: This “secret” speakeasy is named after Jerome’s wife Henrietta. Underneath the old Aspen Times building, the room is everything you would expect of the Hotel Jerome decor. Make sure and call ahead for a reservation. It’s going to be very popular come winter.

Velvet Buck: This will technically be the second winter for the new-ish restaurant inside the St. Regis. There’s a nice bar menu for locals, and uber-Colorado comfort food for those who have travelled for a proper steak or rack of lamb.  Website

EPM Winter House: There are roughly five restaurants in New York that are often referred to as “the best” and 11 Madison Park is currently at the top of the heap. After a successful summer pop-up in the Hamptons (EMP Summer House), co-owners Daniel Humm (its chef) and Will Guidarais will open a Bavarian / Alpine themed EMP Winter House. FYI, you will probably need to make reservations through your American Express card, or do a walk-in with cash. Guess AMEX is finally taking their revenge on those old Visa ads.

The Marble Garden (Herbert Bayer 1955) at The Aspen Meadows, home of the Aspen Institute

Before marble became a decorating staple, it was for a century or ten, a stone more often found in temples, museums, office lobbies, and statuary,

In fact, one of America’s most famous statues, The Lincoln Memorial, was carved from marble quarried only a few miles from Aspen in the aptly named Marble, CO. Despite its exceptional quality, the quarry went bust until only a few years ago.

Aspen Institute attendees performing “Antigone'“ in 1955

By 1946, over in Aspen, Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke were in full renovation mode, turning Aspen into the elegant, cultural ski community it is today. They hired an Austrian artist named Herbert Bayer to be their in-house artist and creative director. Among many, many other projects, Bayer set out to create a marble sculpture garden. While money was a bit tight, the brilliant Pussy (Elizabeth Paepcke’s nickname) had an idea. Why not just take some left over blocks growing moss over in Marble? 

Anaconda, Herbert Bayer, 1979 at The Aspen Institute

Bayer did just that and created his elegant Marble Garden in 1955. As a lovely coda, some 60 years later, the Aspen Institute purchased another marble sculpture by Herbert Bayer.  Entitled, Anaconda (after the steel company, not the snake) it now sits near Anderson Park with a fabulous view of Highlands Bowl.

Anaconda’s marble comes from Tuscany, just like ours. Check out all our lovely custom marble sinks here.

(To learn more about Herbert Bayer and his Bauhaus influences on Aspen, check out Bauhaus100Aspen.org. There will be events all 2019 celebrating the centennial of the Bauhaus School.)

Located at Number 415 on the Hyman Mall –and 7,908 feet above sea level – is Roger Wilson’s new supper club with food by Chef Charif Souki and design by Kristin Dittmar … that’s us. Big enough to accommodate a restaurant, bar and night club, the supper club opened in July and is resting up for the winter season. 

With almost 6,000 square feet to play with, my challenge was to make the room feel grand, but also create plenty of cozy spots. For example, I made sure the lady-finger banquettes had nice deep corners for friends to snuggle while they enjoy an order of the already famous caviar nachos. 

Some of my other favorite details include:

• A custom “dance box,” sort of a “stage for one” just off the DJ booth.

• Special tables in the night club that can be raised and lowered to accommodate eating, drinking, and late-night dancing. Mind the heels girls!

• Perhaps my favorite detail is in the one room I never get to visit. The men’s room floor is done in black and white marble tiles which I had specially cut to look like a plaid carpet – just something for the boys to appreciate when their glancing down.  

Painting from The Tale of Genji (c. 1021) and a 19th Century German living room in the Biedermeier style.  

Vogue editor Diana Vreeland had something of an obsession with Japanese culture. As she put it, “God was fair to the Japanese. He gave them no oil, no diamonds, but he gave them style.”  Indeed, their fondness for clean and harmonious lines dates all the way back to the early 14th century when the original tatami rooms came into style. It only took Europe 500 years to catch on. Well, not exactly ...

Not much has changed by way of Japanese interiors since the 14th-century: The lovely Masuya Yushinan Hotel carries on the tradition.  

Biedermeier furniture on 1st Dibs

There was at least one movement in the early 19th century that valued form over ornament. Called Biedermeier, the furniture style was popular in Germany from 1818 - 1848. A burgeoning middle class started decorating their new and improved homes with a new style that emphasized clean lines and minimal ornamentation. The philosophy was in line with their sensible, utilitarian values, but the results were quite beautiful. To the modern eye, they look traditional, but it really was a radical departure from the incredibly ornate stylings of the time. 

It’s the summer of tents in Aspen. It seems like every party, wedding and reason to celebrate is taking place under a temporary structure. And while tents are nothing new, the decorations going into making them seem so un-tent-like are.

During the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the grand tasting tents go up in Wagner Park to protect people while they drink and eat their way through hundreds of wineries and food purveyors. But away from the center of the action, smaller tents for seminars and private parties steal the spotlight. Nice touches in these included red-and-white checkered tablecloths for a seminar on picnicking. At night, private tasting events were transformed into ultra-cool lounge settings with low, cushy couches and brightly colored accent throw pillows.

Mid-summer is also a time for galas. Many of the nonprofits in town host their annual benefits, and they go all out in making it a luxe affair. Understated elegance has been the theme here, again with thoughtful, intimate touches; long picnic tables, small sofa sets around oversized tables and tall-boy tables with stools all encourage conversation and provide a sense of community at events that can otherwise be stuffy. Gone are big round tables for 10. Instead event planners are moving toward a mix and match of tables and group sizes.

And finally, what summer isn’t complete without weddings? Some of the most interesting designs have been on the walls surrounding these lavish events. Instead of keeping the ceiling white, one bride covered the ceiling with large swatches of navy-blue-striped fabric. In a separate tents, light blue plaid hung from the walls while the ceiling was covered in painted in stars and moons. It was heavenly and truly transformed the space into a mystical place. Spotlights pointed toward the wall casting shadows of stenciled leaves and flowers create a multidimensional affect. Carpets on the floor softened the noise and provided a comfy feeling.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!

Artist Profile:

Marilyn Minter

Though we are quite secluded in Aspen – far from the hustle and bustle of New York or L.A – it pleases me to know that we are not, however, too far removed from some of the greatest artists of our time, including my friend Marilyn Minter (www.marilynminter.net).

Represented here in Aspen by the Baldwin Gallery, with whom I work closely for my clients,  Marilyn Minter (born 1948) is an American artist currently living and working in New York City and one of the most engaging photographer / painter I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

An aspect I admire the most about Marilyn’s photography is that her photographs are most often not altered in any way – leaving a raw, exposed image of the life around us to consume as is. No magic.

BIO

Marilyn Minter has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2005, the Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Les Rencontres d’Arles festival in 2007, France, OH in 2009, La Conservera, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Ceutí/Murcia, Spain in 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH in 2010 and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany in 2011. Her video Green Pink Caviar was exhibited in the lobby of the MoMA for over a year, and was also shown on digital billboards on Sunset Boulevard in LA. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions. In 2006, Marilyn Minter was included in the Whitney Biennial, and in a collaboration with Creative Time she installed billboards all over Chelsea in New York city. In 2009, she had solo exhibits at Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Salon 94, New York. In 2011 Minter had a solo exhibition at Team Gallery, New York. She was featured in Commercial Break, at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and POST, for the 2011 Venice Biennale. Her work is currently featured in “ Riotous Baroque”, a group exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich which will travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao in June 2013.